Copyright

Copyright © 2010 by Joyce Meyer

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FaithWords
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ISBN: 978-0-446-56919-4

CONTENTS

Copyright

1: The Cookie
2: Happy Birthday
3: You Are Worth a Little Waste
4: God Likes a Party
5: Celebrate Your Progress
6: Celebrate through Giving
7: A Time to Remember
8: Celebrate Who You Are and What You Have
9: Celebrate You
10: Learn When to Stop
11: Give Your Soul a Vacation
12: Priorities
13: My All in All
14: Give God Your All
15: Celebrate Discipline
16: Discipline Yourself to Celebrate

Notes
About The Author
Joyce Meyer Ministries U.S. & Foreign Office Addresses
Other Books by Joyce Meyer
The Cookie

t was Saturday afternoon in St. Louis, Missouri, during our

2007 annual autumn women’s convention, and we were on a
brief lunch break preceding the final session of the conference.
This is one of the most significant events that our ministry
sponsors. It is attended by thousands of women from all over
the world, and it requires a tremendous amount of hard work,
creativity, and preparation. The three-day conference begins
on Thursday evening, and by the Saturday lunch break, I’m
usually mentally, physically, and emotionally tired. This
particular event seems to take a lot out of me for several
reasons. By the last session, I feel a great deal of responsibility
to be sure that the conference ends in a way that leaves our
attendees energized and very glad they came.
We had enjoyed a small lunch, and I was gathering all of
my strength getting ready to go to the platform and bring the
conference to a fantastic finish. Dave and I were leaving the
lunchroom when I saw a plate of chocolate chip cookies I had
passed by when I was selecting my lunch from the buffet. As I
saw them this time I thought, “I really want (need) a little piece
of one of those cookies.” I stopped at the table and broke off
about one-third of one of the cookies and ate it. As we
proceeded to the platform Dave said, “Did you just eat part of
that cookie?” His tone of voice was accusing and right away I
got defensive. I felt like saying, “Chill out… it is just a piece of
cookie!”
You might wonder why Dave cared about one-third of a
cookie. We had recently signed up at a workout facility nine
months prior to the convention. We worked out three days a
week and had committed to a special eating plan that was
rather strict. Four days a week we ate mostly protein and
vegetables. The fifth day was called a “free day” because we
got to eat one meal consisting of anything we wanted to eat.
Usually on that day we ate pasta and/or dessert. We were free
to eat whatever we wanted during that one meal as long as we
got right back on our eating plan the next day. Our free day for
that week was the following day, and Dave had challenged me
because I had eaten the piece of cookie on the wrong day.
In his own words, he was only trying to help me. But I
didn’t want help or advice. I wanted the cookie! I was tired, I
had come a long way in the conference, and I needed
something to get me to the finish line. I didn’t care what it was,
but it needed to be fun, pretty, or sweet. And the cookie
happened to be the first thing I saw that fit that description.
Being a man, Dave does not understand things like that. He is
very logical and in his mind, it simply wasn’t the right day to
eat the cookie. He wanted me to know that I would be sorry
after I ate it. However, I was not the least bit sorry. I felt that I
deserved it, and in the same set of circumstances I would do it
again!
My friend saw what was happening between me and
Dave, and having compassion and understanding, she put her
arm around my shoulder and said, “You deserve that cookie,
and if I were you, when this last session is over I would go buy
a pair of shoes to go with it!” (She knows I like shoes.) She
totally understood that the cookie was meeting an emotional
need of mine. Being a left-brained male, Dave didn’t get it at all.
I went onstage and made a joke out of it, like I usually do
about most of the things that happen between Dave and me,
and everyone enjoyed it immensely. Actually, the ladies
cheered so long and loud and were so happy for me that I had
eaten the cookie that I began to realize that there was a larger
issue involved in the eating of the cookie that needed to be
explored. That’s how the idea for this book was birthed.
Interestingly enough, when the teaching about the cookie aired
o n Enjoying Everyday Life, it was so well received that it was
voted the favorite program of the year by the people who
watch the broadcast. Obviously, I’d struck a nerve.
There are times when we all need to eat the cookie and
buy the shoes in order to help us finish what we have started
or as a way of celebrating something we have accomplished.
Your cookie and shoes can be anything that you enjoy. It can
be a favorite food, a nap, a manicure or pedicure. If you are a
brave man reading this book, you can play golf, go fishing, go
to a ballgame, or whatever helps you rest and refreshes you.
You may even be a man who likes manicures, pedicures, and
bubble baths, or a woman who likes to get out tools and build
something amazing. We don’t have to fit into some society
mold. We are free to enjoy anything as long it is not immoral or
illegal.
I sincerely wish that the male species was more
understanding about the cookies in life, but most of them just
don’t seem to get it. Dave fully intended to go hit his golf balls
Saturday evening, which is his way of relaxing and celebrating
a job well done. But he still had the nerve to comment about my
cookie! It isn’t fair that cookies have calories and golf balls
don’t. If every golf ball Dave hit had ten calories, he would
weigh a thousand pounds!
Dave truly was trying to help me when he commented on
the cookie. He loves me immensely and is extremely good to
me. But he simply didn’t understand my need at that moment.
Sadly, if we are not confident about our choices, we can easily
let other peoples’ comments make us feel guilty and ruin the
joy we need to experience in life through doing the little things
that mean a lot to us. My friend rescued me from the guilt that
could have hounded me that day, and I am thankful to God for
using her. I didn’t need guilt as I approached the final session
of the convention. I needed the cookie and the thought of
shoes later that day!
 We’re Not Built for Guilt

Making people feel guilty about anything is not God’s mode of

operation. The source of guilt is the devil. He is the accuser of
the brethren, according to the Bible (see Rev. 12:10). God will
convict us of wrong choices and actions, but He never tries to
make us feel guilty. Guilt presses us down and weakens us, but
godly conviction brings awareness of wrong, and an
opportunity to change and progress.
We are not built for guilt. God never intended His children
to be loaded down with guilt, so our systems don’t handle it
well at all. Had God wanted us to feel guilty, He would not have
sent Jesus to redeem us from guilt. He bore, or paid for, our
iniquities and the guilt they cause (see Isa. 53:6 and 1 Peter
2:24–25). As believers in Jesus Christ and as sons and
daughters of God, we have been set free from the power of sin
(see Rom. 6:6–10). That doesn’t mean that we’ll never sin, but it
does mean that when we do, we can admit it, receive
forgiveness, and be free from guilt. Our journey with God
toward right behavior and holiness is progressive, and if we
have to drag the guilt from past mistakes along with us, we’ll
never make progress toward true freedom and joy. Perhaps this
is the main reason why so few people actually enter into and
enjoy the inheritance promised through relationship with Jesus
Christ.
 Your future has no room for your past. How much time do
you waste feeling guilty? It is important that you think about
this, because spending time dwelling on past mistakes is
something God has told us not to do. He even sent us the Holy
Spirit to help us gain freedom in this area. Don’t be so intense
about every mistake that you make. So what if you’re not
perfect? Nobody else is either. Besides, Jesus came for those
who were sick (imperfect), not those who were well (perfect).

The Apostle Paul was very emphatic about the need to let
go of past mistakes in order to have the strength to press on
toward the mark of perfection that God is calling us to.

Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already

been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp)
and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the
Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.
I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and
 made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one
aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining
forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and
heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us
upward.
Philippians 3:12–14

Satan will definitely try to make us feel guilty about our

sins, faults, and weaknesses. Even worse, he will try to make us
feel guilty when we haven’t done anything wrong. Until my
friend encouraged me, I was about to feel guilty about eating
one third of a chocolate chip cookie on the wrong day! There
was no sin in eating the cookie. We could eat a dozen cookies
and it still wouldn’t be sin. It would not be a good or a wise
choice, but it would not be sin in the true sense of the word. I
just needed a little celebration before approaching the finish of
my conference, and what I almost got was a dose of guilt,
frustration, and resentment—all from a teaspoonful of cookie
batter!
I’ve surveyed many people on this subject and have
found that most people feel guilty when they take the
opportunity to celebrate. They push themselves to go on with
no joy fuel in their tank. Joy is the fuel we need to reach the
finish line of an endeavor with a good attitude. We may drive
ourselves to finish, but somewhere along the way we will
probably become bitter and get a chip on our shoulder if we
don’t lighten up and take time to celebrate the journey.
I believe that we must confront the reasons why we tend
to feel guilty about enjoying and celebrating life when God has
clearly ordained and commanded both. Our thinking has been
warped in these areas. Satan has managed to deceive us, and
by doing so he succeeds in keeping people weary and worn
out, feeling resentful, and taken advantage of because of
excessive work and responsibility. We need times of
refreshment and recreation as well as work and
accomplishment.
When I ask large audiences how many people feel guilty
when they try to rest or entertain themselves or even do things
they enjoy, my guess would be that at least 80 percent of the
people raise their hands. I was part of that 80 percent until I
decided that I was not built for guilt, and I was not going to
continue allowing a renegade feeling to rule my life.
 I studied God’s word about guilt and studied His
character and nature until I was totally convinced that God is
not the source of guilt. I see guilt as an illegal alien that attacks
our mind and conscience, attempting to prevent us from
enjoying anything God has provided for us. Guilt has no legal
right in our lives because Jesus has paid for our sins and
misdeeds. If it is in us illegally, then we need to send it back
where it came from—which is hell! Don’t give guilt a green card
or, even worse, citizenship and allow it to take up residence in
you.
I was once addicted to guilt. The only time in life that I felt
right was when I felt wrong. I especially had difficulty enjoying
myself because I didn’t feel that I deserved it. I was most
definitely a person who needed to give myself permission to
lighten up and not be so intense about basically everything in
life. I was intense about how my children behaved and looked.
I was intense about how my house looked, how I looked, and
what people thought of us. I was intense about trying to
change my husband into what I thought he should be. I really
can’t think of anything I wasn’t intense about! I remember
going to a doctor once because I was exhausted all the time
and generally felt horrible. He talked to me five minutes and
said, “You are a very intense woman and your problem is
stress!” I got offended, left his office, and continued on with
my intense, stressful lifestyle.
I didn’t know how to trust God with daily life. I was out of
balance in almost everything and I did not yet realize that
celebration and enjoyment are necessary in our lives and we
cannot be healthy spiritually, mentally, emotionally, or
physically without them. We must remember that we are not
built for guilt, and we should deal with it aggressively anytime
we experience it.
The best gift you can give your family and the world is a
healthy you and you cannot be healthy without celebration
being a regular part of your life. You can change the entire
atmosphere in your home simply by giving yourself permission
to lighten up.
Happy Birthday

want to help you see all of the reasons you have to

celebrate. Let’s start with your birthday. The day you were
born was an awesome day, and every anniversary of that day
should be celebrated. We just celebrated our youngest
grandson’s first birthday, and the house was full of people,
presents, and food. He couldn’t have cared less, but we were
having a great time! It seems we always make a big deal out of
a child’s first birthday, but as the years go by, we stop thinking
it is important.
By the time most people reach their thirties they say
things like, “It is just another day and I am just another year
older.” “I don’t need a party, and don’t worry about a gift. It’s
just another day.” For most of my adult birthdays I have
worked. The office booked a conference without realizing it
was my birthday and I approved it by saying, “Oh well, it is
just another birthday.” People who love me send cards and
gifts, and someone usually invites me out to dinner if I am in
town or when I get back in town. But, I have not had a spirit of
celebration in my heart about it. As far as I was concerned, I
was just another year older. I would even say things like,
“When you get this old, another year doesn’t matter.” My
attitude was wrong, and I am sorry that I missed so many
chances to celebrate another year of life.
When we seriously consider what the Psalmist David said
about our birth, we realize we need to celebrate the amazing
work God did when He created us.

For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me

together in my mother’s womb.
I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and
wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth!
Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows
right well.
Psalms 139:13–14

Perhaps part of the reason why we don’t feel the need to

celebrate is that we lack understanding on how truly awesome
we are. David said that his inner self knew that the work God
had done was amazing beyond comprehension. Let’s take a
look at how The Message translates these verses.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;

you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
 Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
Psalms 139:13–14

If we could see ourselves from God’s perspective, we

would see that we have a huge reason to celebrate the
anniversary of our birth. If one year of life is worth celebrating
with the gusto we had on our grandson’s recent birthday, then
we should celebrate even more the older we get. Why not
celebrate that God kept your heart beating another year at an
amazing thirty-eight million beats during the year? Your blood
circulates through your body once every sixty seconds and
that is really amazing considering that you have between
twenty-four thousand and forty-eight thousand miles of blood
vessels in your body. That means your heart pumped your
blood through all those miles of vessels 525,600 times in the
past year!
Our bodies are amazing vehicles. I hear my husband and
sons talk in tones of wonder about some new car they admire,
and yet our bodies are infinitely more finely tuned and
brilliantly designed than any automobile ever made. I just
passed my sixty-sixth year of life, and thanks to my new
understanding of the importance of celebration, I went all out
to celebrate. I decided to have a birthday week instead of a
day, and I can honestly say it was the best birthday that I can
remember. That was mainly due to my attitude of celebration. I
realized that celebrating another year of life as a gift from God
was a way of honoring Him. When I was sixty, my family gave
me a wonderful huge party. But this birthday was even better,
because I really celebrated with my whole heart.
I was due for some celebrating anyway. We had just been
involved in several tragic situations involving people we know
and love. I was drained. On top of that, I was behind in my
writing schedule due to the time I had to spend on an
unexpected writing project, and I needed to get started again
right away on this book. My birthday just happened to be in
the midst of this time and I used it as an excuse to party, relax,
get some new clothes, eat, spend time with people I love, and
give to others. All of these very natural things helped me
recover from the tragic events and the workload I had just had,
and they helped me get ready for the next project I needed to
tackle.
I tried to sit down and start this book without taking time
to celebrate, and the only thing I could think to say was
“Introduction”! I put that word at the top of the page and
could not think of one thing to say after that. I needed to take
time to refresh through celebration before creativity would flow
again. I decided to have a birthday week, and for five full days I
did things that I enjoyed doing. I avoided all problems, made a
point of not being around people who are challenging for me to
be with, and I took the time to thoroughly enjoy each thing I
did. After two days of celebrating, I tried again to write and
managed one sentence. After that sentence nothing else came
to me. Once again I stared at the blank page on the computer
and decided to celebrate a few more days! By the fifth day, I
could feel in my soul that I had made a transition and was
ready to work again. Today I got started at six AM and have
been writing for hours. And I’ve enjoyed every moment of it.
I feel ready to work and be creative; in fact, I want to
work! If I had denied myself the time of celebration, as I had for
so many years, I would have been struggling, frustrated and
resentful, thinking of how I worked all the time while other
people enjoyed themselves.
I am sure that most of you women reading this book have
had plenty of times when you have felt that you do all the
work, nobody really appreciates you, and that your husband
and children go about enjoying life without ever realizing how
much you sacrifice. It is commonly called a martyr syndrome,
and I had it for at least one-half of my life. The answer to the
problem is not found in someone else doing something for you,
although that is helpful. The real answer is you learning how to
celebrate your own progress so you have strength to begin the
next one without resentment. I like it when other people do
things for me or encourage me, but I have decided that if they
don’t happen to think of it, I am going to do it myself!
 Celebrate the Ordinary

Every day cannot be a birthday, and this day may be a very

ordinary one for you. Perhaps you have just finished spring
cleaning, and sometime before the week is over you need to
visit your mom at the nursing home, take her to a doctor visit,
go to the grocery store, make it to a parent-teacher conference,
take little Johnnie to soccer practice, and watch your husband
bowl on Friday night so he feels that you are a good wife who
is interested in him. My suggestion to avoid bitterness,
resentment, and perhaps a mild nervous breakdown is to take
time between the spring cleaning and all the rest of the things
on your schedule and do something that you really enjoy that
would qualify as celebration. The first thing your mind is going
to say is, “You don’t have time to do that.” But I am telling you
that you need to take the time. And if you do, the rest of your
tasks will go more smoothly and joyfully. If you don’t take the
time to recharge your batteries, then you are probably headed
for some version of sinking emotions—discouragement,
depression, despair, anger, resentment, or self-pity. When you
start to feel down, just take the time to do something “up” that
lifts your mood and helps you feel better about life in general.
Cleaning house is an ordinary thing, but getting the job
done can still be celebrated. Perhaps we could enjoy ordinary,
everyday life more if we learned to celebrate the ordinary. I am
actually inviting you to creatively find reasons to celebrate.
We cannot always celebrate for days at a time like I just did for
my birthday, but even small celebrations can refresh us. Eat a
cookie, buy a pair of shoes, go to lunch with a good friend, sit
in the sunshine, go for a walk, or put a spoonful of whipped
cream in your coffee. Take the time to do whatever is special to
you. It doesn’t even have to take a long time, but it is
necessary for optimum joy and maintaining a good attitude.
Too much of the ordinary is what we normally get bored
with, but I am convinced that it’s our own fault. We don’t have
to wait for something nice to happen to us, we can be
aggressive and do something nice for ourselves. For many of
you, I know this is a new thought; one that may seem foreign
and even unspiritual. But I can assure you that it is part of
God’s plan. You can create variety, and it will keep your life
more exciting. I sat with my computer on my lap for about four
hours this morning and then stopped for a while to do some
other things I needed to do. When I went back to my writing, I
decided to sit in a different part of the house just for variety. I
chose a place where I could look out the window and had
plenty of light. Simple little things like this cost nothing, but
they are very valuable.
 No day needs to be ordinary if we realize the gift God is
giving us when He gives us another day. An extraordinary
attitude can quickly turn an ordinary day into an amazing
adventure. Jesus said that He came that we might have and
enjoy life (see John 10:10). If we refuse to enjoy it, then it’s no
one’s fault but our own. I would like to suggest that you take
responsibility for your joy and never again give anyone else
the job of keeping you happy. You can control what you do,
but you cannot control what other people do. So you may be
unhappy a lot of the time if you only depend on them as your
source of joy. The Psalmist David said that he encouraged
himself in the Lord, and if he can do it, then we can do it.
Solomon talked about celebration when he said:

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is for one

to eat and drink, and to find enjoyment in all the labor in
which he labors under the sun all the days which God
gives him—for this is his [allotted] part.
Ecclesiastes 5:18

I can see from this Scripture that the cookie was my

allotted part that Saturday afternoon in 2007 at our conference.
It helped me enjoy my labor, and since then I have learned a
great deal about the art of celebration. I am so sorry that I lived
so long without it, but I am fully committed to spending the
rest of my life making up for lost time!
 Every day is worth celebrating, but especially the day of
your birth. Go for it and don’t hold back. God has given you
another year to do the ordinary and the extraordinary, and you
are cheating yourself if you don’t celebrate.
You Are Worth a Little Waste

he Bible teaches us to be prudent, and that means being

good managers of all of our resources. Yet there are times when
God gets rather extravagant with those whom He loves.
Sometimes in an effort to not be wasteful we can become
downright cheap and stingy. Some people are especially that
way with themselves. I know people who are generous with
others, but their general attitude toward themselves is that they
can do without. They say, “I don’t need that,” or, “I can do
without that.” But I believe they are depriving themselves
because they don’t feel worth the cost of the indulgence.
Perhaps we can learn a lesson from Jesus. He was nearing
the time of His suffering and death, and He went to Simon’s
house, where a woman named Mary came up to Him and
poured expensive perfume on His head as He was reclining at
the table. Since He was at the table I am assuming that He
either was or had been eating (maybe a cookie). When the
disciples saw what she did, they became indignant, saying,
“For what purpose is all this waste?” They talked about how
the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the
poor.
Jesus replied by telling them not to bother the woman
because she had done a noble (praiseworthy and beautiful)
thing for Him. Jesus said that they would always have the poor
with them, but they would not always have Him. He said that
what she had done had helped prepare Him for the trials ahead
(see Matt. 26:6–12). The perfume she poured out on Jesus was
probably worth about one year of wages, but her extravagance
certainly blessed Him. The love she showed to Him helped give
Him the strength He needed to face the upcoming days of
persecution, trial, suffering, crucifixion, and death. God often
works through unlikely vessels and in unusual ways to give us
courage and strength. A further study of this amazing event
teaches us that the home Jesus was in belonged to a leper, and
the woman who blessed Him had formerly had seven demons
cast out of her. It is interesting to note who Jesus chose to
spend time with at this critical time in His life: it was not the
religious crowd.
In this particular instance, Jesus was saying that for this
time and occasion He was worth the extravagance, or what the
disciples saw as waste. We know that ordinarily waste would
not be good, but everything is beautiful in its time (see Eccles.
3:11). There is a time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep
and a time to give away (see Eccles. 3:6). Jesus certainly
believed in giving to the poor. He and His disciples kept money
with them as they traveled specifically for the purpose of
giving to the poor they met on their journey. But religious
legalism leaves no room to be led by the Holy Spirit.
Everything is controlled by rules, regulation, and laws when
one is religiously legalistic. This is why Jesus had such harsh
things to say to the religious people of His day. It is also the
reason why, when He wanted to relax with friends, He chose
ordinary people who had made mistakes and wanted
forgiveness, mercy, and a better way of living.
The disciples looked at what was going on from their
minds and not their hearts, and they missed the whole point.
Mary had been forgiven for much and she loved Jesus very
much. She loved Him so much that she was willing to take what
was probably her most precious possession and pour it all over
Him as an act of gratitude and worship. Her wholehearted
display of affection ministered to Him in such a deep and
profound way that He said it helped prepare Him for His burial.
This whole story is truly amazing and contains a wonderful
lesson if we really look at it deeply.
 Seeing from God’s View

When we look at things with the eyes of our heart we are more
likely to see from God’s view. The poor are certainly important,
but at that moment Jesus needed to be prepared for a world-
changing event and it was worth a departure from the ordinary
way things were usually done.
When our ministry takes people to the mission field for
the first time, they usually come home after seeing such severe
poverty and feel that they should never buy anything again
that is not absolutely and vitally necessary, and that they
should give away everything else. We went through the same
thing but soon realized that while God was asking us to help
the poor, He was not asking us to become poor. People who
start to feel guilty after a mission trip and begin to live on what
they need to barely get by quickly become unhappy, unless of
course God has given them a special grace to make such an
extraordinary sacrifice. They cannot understand why they are
unhappy because after all, they are doing the noble thing.
However, they are doing something that is not necessary and
that God never asked them to do.
We cannot labor and never enjoy the fruit of our labor. It
is not in God’s plan for His children. Just as we are not built for
guilt, we are not destined by God to live with barely enough to
get by. He is El Shaddi, the God of more than enough. He is
Jehovah Jirah, the Lord our Provider. He said that He was able
to do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond all that we
could ever dare to ask, think or imagine (see Eph. 3:20). He said
that if we would be faithful to bring all of our tithe into the
storehouse so there would always be enough to help others,
that He would open the windows of heaven and dribble out
(oops, I made a mistake—He actually said POUR out) a
blessing so great that we could not take it in (see Mal. 3:10).

Certainly God wants and even commands us to give to

others generously. You will see later in this book that in the
Bible we learn that giving to the poor is part of celebrating our
victories and the progress we have made in life. But God never
intended that we feel guilty if we take time to enjoy the fruit of
our labors. Hard work deserves reward and we must not ever
think that it doesn’t. God rewards those who diligently seek
Him (see Heb. 11:6), so why would He not want us to enjoy the
reward of other things we work diligently at?
On that Saturday afternoon in the fall of 2007, the cookie I
ate part of was a reward for my hard work so far in the
conference. It was to me what the sweet perfume was to Jesus.
It encouraged me for the rest of the journey I needed to make.
It was a principle, and to be honest, the one-third of a cookie
had very little to do with it. So don’t get fixated on the cookie
and miss the lesson. You could start eating cookies three times
a day and not get anything but fat. The cookie could easily
have been a compliment from the right person, a hug, some
perfume, a neck and shoulder massage, or a thousand other
things, but the point was that I needed a little something for me
and my emotions. We all have emotional needs, and ignoring
them will cause serious problems over time. God gave us our
emotions, and it is not wrong to do what is needed to keep
them strong and healthy. We must not allow emotions to rule
us, but denying their existence is equally dangerous.
The cookie did not fill me up. I could have done without it,
it probably was a waste of calories—I know a nutritionist
would say it had no food value. But I did not care at all—I
WANTED THE COOKIE AND I ATE IT!
 Is It Waste to Buy More of What You
Already Have?

It can be a waste and a breeding ground for financial trouble to

buy more of what you already have, but there are times when it
is acceptable behavior. The first thing to ask yourself is if you
can afford what you are purchasing. What is wasteful for one
person may be totally permissible for another depending on
level of income. One way to define extravagance is trying to
live beyond what you can comfortably afford. I recommend
that you don’t buy or eat things just for entertainment or
encouragement if you cannot afford it or if it will harm your
overall life in some way. Everything we do should be guided by
principles of wisdom.
Most women like little things like soap that smells good,
perfume, earrings, shoes, a new top to wear, or some little thing
that is pretty to look at. Do we need all of them? Of course we
don’t, but we do enjoy them. And enjoyment has intrinsic
value. We need to enjoy our journey through life. My husband
loves to go to the golf store and of course I can’t understand
that at all since he already has golf balls, clubs, gloves, shoes,
hats, and all that golfing stuff. But, he loves to go there and he
usually comes out with something, just like I would if I went
into an accessory store for ladies.
Jesus did not die so we could be miserable and deny
ourselves everything that we enjoy or that is pretty. He did say
that we should deny ourselves, but He was talking about self-
denial in order to serve others rather than being selfish and
self-centered. Jesus did not go to the cross because we buy
and wear earrings or other jewelry, or because of makeup or
movies or dancing or card playing. He had to go to the cross
because of jealousy, greed, anger, lust, gossip, criticism, lying,
hatred, and other such sins. Obviously, there may be times
when it is necessary and proper to deny ourselves the item that
we already have plenty of, but we have the freedom as
individuals to be led by the Holy Spirit.
I also believe there are different seasons in our lives in
which we may need to follow different guidelines. When God
was teaching me that I needed Him more than I needed any
other “thing” in life, He told me not to ask Him for anything
except more of Him until He gave me permission to do so. This
was a season of self-denial in my life that lasted for six months
and was for the purpose of teaching me an important spiritual
lesson. We all have times like this and it is important to be able
to flow in and out of the various seasons of our life
comfortably. If I have to shop for earrings or Dave has to go to
the golf store to be happy, then we have a problem, but if it is
something we simply enjoy, then God will sanction it and even
help us find what we are looking for.
The same disciples who thought Mary was being wasteful
when she poured the perfume on Jesus argued among
themselves over which of them they thought was the greatest.
They saw and judged Mary’s sacrificial gift as waste, but they
failed to see their own pride, arrogance, and competitive spirit.
They needed to look at themselves rather than Mary because it
was their pride that was a sin, and not her generosity.
Jesus tried to tell them that they needed to clean the
inside of the cup and not worry so much about the outside, but
most of them never really understood what He was saying. He
wanted them to realize that no matter how perfectly they
behaved or how many laws and rules they kept, none of it
meant anything if their hearts were not right. They never really
understood that it wasn’t the perfume or what it cost that was
important, but it was Mary’s attitude of heart that was so
valuable and encouraging to Jesus. The perfume was just the
vehicle that carried the love she felt and displayed.
An important lesson that I have learned is to make all of
my resources available for use in the service of God and man.
That doesn’t mean that God will require me to give all of them
away, but it does mean that I am ready to let them go if God
asks me to. Occasionally God will test our obedience and
loyalty to Him by asking us to give away something that means
a lot to us. If we are able to obey Him promptly and with joy it
is evidence that although we have things, they don’t have us.
Jesus said that people who have wealth and keep on
holding it will have difficulty entering the kingdom of God (see
Mark 10:23). Having is not a problem, but not being able to let
go of what we have is a problem. Be a channel and let what
comes to you flow through you.
 God Is an Amazing Decorator

Have you ever paid attention to how the temple of God was
decorated under the Old Covenant? It was very beautiful and
ornate, so God must like pretty things. It was built with the best
wood available, and everything—and I do mean everything—
was overlaid with gold. God’s house that Solomon built to
honor Him was filled with gold, silver, expensive cloth, and
every kind of precious jewel known to man. It was built with
the best of the best.
What we read about Heaven sounds pretty amazing, too.
Streets of gold, a sea of crystal, and a gate made out of one
single pearl. As someone who enjoys pretty clothes, I have
noticed how the priests in the Old Testament dressed—and
they were pretty decked out. My point is that God likes
beautiful things, and there is nothing wrong with us liking
them, too. Someone who attended one of my conferences sent
a letter of complaint about me wearing rhinestone earrings.
They thought the earrings were too flashy, and I couldn’t help
but wonder how they would feel if they made it to Heaven and
saw how God decorates. Was He wasteful when He gave
instructions on how the temple was to be decorated? I am sure
He could have cut back on some stuff and not been so
extravagant. Surely some of that gold could have been given to
the poor. I think we need to understand that there are times
when God is extravagant, but that doesn’t mean He is being
wasteful. Nothing is wasted if it is used for a right purpose, and
blessing yourself at times is right and necessary.

Religious people often say that the Apostle Paul said that
women should not wear expensive clothes or jewelry and they
should not have elaborate hairstyles. Some have added
makeup, but I cannot find any reference to makeup in the Bible.
Personally, I need mine and would suggest it for a few other
people I have seen, too. If God didn’t like color He would not
have created it. Let’s look at what Paul actually said.

Let not yours be the [merely] external adorning with

[elaborate] interweaving and knotting of the hair, the
wearing of jewelry or changes of clothes;
But let it be the inward adorning and beauty of the
hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible and
unfading charm of a gentle and peaceful spirit, which [is
not anxious or wrought up, but] is very precious in the
sight of God.
1 Peter 3:3–4
 All the Apostle is saying is that women should not merely
or only be concerned with how they look and having lots of
clothes, but they should first and foremost be concerned with
having a right heart attitude. He did not say that women
shouldn’t have more than one outfit and that it should be
colorless and out of style. He did not say that wearing jewelry
was a sin, but he did say that to be overly concerned with
those things was wrong. I admit that I have seen some pretty
obnoxious excess, but when I have, I have also seen obnoxious
attitudes to go along with it. When people have a right heart
toward God they do things in balance and are always
concerned about representing God in a proper way.
God appears to me to be an awesome decorator. He can
choose my wardrobe and decorate my house any time. Just
look at the way He has decorated the earth. Thousands upon
thousands of species of animals and birds, and trees and
flowers exist. How many species of animals exist? The correct
answer is that nobody really knows. Over a million have been
named, but experts say there are possibly another million
waiting to be discovered. There are twenty thousand species
of fish, six thousand reptiles, nine thousand birds, and fifteen
thousand mammals. Most don’t even want to guess at the
number and variety of insects on the earth. There are nearly
twenty varieties of penguins—that seems a bit excessive to me,
but I guess God likes variety. There are 6,500 varieties of roses,
at least 7,500 varieties of apples and 7,500 varieties of
tomatoes, but not all are grown commercially.
 CNN.com says that research counts seventy sextillion
stars within the range of modern telescopes. I am not sure how
they counted them, but the point is do we need them all? Is it
wasteful or excessive to have so many out there that we cannot
even see them? The point I am trying to make is that God not
only likes variety, He obviously has lots more of everything
than He would have to have. He does exceedingly, abundantly,
above and beyond what would be required. God delights in
amazing us. Take the penguin for example. I love movies and
documentaries about penguins. They are funny, cute, and have
amazing habits. They look like they are wearing tuxedos and
the way they walk is hilarious. I love the movie Happy Feet,
which is about a penguin who could not sing like the others,
but he had happy feet—he could dance! When I see penguins
it makes me happy. I am convinced that God does a lot of what
He does just for our enjoyment and to make us happy.
God Likes a Party

party is a festive occasion and would certainly qualify as a

celebration. As a matter of fact many celebrations take the form
of a party. We have birthday parties, Christmas parties, office
parties, anniversary parties—we can make a party out of
anything. The first miracle that Jesus performed that is
recorded was done at a party. I think that is interesting to say
the least and that it should be noted in our memory banks.
Jesus was invited to a wedding and while He was there they
ran out of wine so He turned some water into wine so the party
could continue as planned. No matter what your particular
doctrine is about wine, the fact remains that Jesus made it for
the party, so don’t get caught up in the wine and miss the
point. Jesus attended the party, He had nothing against the
party, and He wanted the people to enjoy the party.
I am making a big deal out of this because I believe that
many religious people could not have a good time at a party if
their lives depended on it. They would probably find
something wrong with the music, the way people dressed and,
of course, the wine. They would think the money spent to have
the party could have been used for a more important purpose.
Religious people just do not seem to know how to have a really
good time, but people who have a genuine relationship with
Jesus can somehow enjoy everything. The religious person
tends to avoid almost everything that could be considered fun
in an effort not to sin, but the person who has close fellowship
with God and is led by the Holy Spirit can do all things in
moderation.
During my first few years as a Christian I went to church
and tried to be good to a point, but was definitely a middle-of-
the-road, compromising Christian. Then I came to a place in life
where I wanted more of God than I had, and I got really serious
about my relationship with Him. I got so serious that all I did
was go to church, prayer meeting, and Bible studies. I did not
go to parties! I was much too serious-minded about God to
waste my time on frivolous things like that. I stopped playing
volleyball, I stopped bowling, I stopped playing golf with Dave
—as a matter of fact I stopped everything that was fun and
became dangerously close to being one of the Pharisees that
Jesus had disdain for (see Matt. 23). I finally got spiritual
burnout, and my life was so out of balance and boring that I
began to search the Scriptures for myself about joy and the
enjoyment of life. I discovered that God likes parties, a playful
attitude, laughter, celebration, and festivals. He also likes
holiness, and the good news is we can be holy and enjoy a
party. Jesus actually said that He came so we could have and
enjoy life and have it in abundance until it overflows. I sure
didn’t have that, so I decided I was going to learn to really
enjoy life. I was definitely one of the people that I am writing
this book for. I needed to give myself permission to lighten up!
I know some of the more religious-minded people are
thinking right now, “Well Joyce, the Bible does say to be
serious-minded, sober, disciplined, prudent, and diligent.”
They are correct and we need to be all of those things, but we
also need to celebrate, and if we don’t we will be missing the
spice in life. Everything, including us, will be tasteless and
boring.
 Join My Party

When Jesus invited people to become His disciples and follow

Him, He asked them if they wanted to join His party. I realize He
was talking about His group, but I like to think that traveling
with Jesus was probably a lot of fun as well as a lot of hard
work. He told the rich young ruler that we read about in Luke
18 to lay aside his selfish lifestyle and join His party. The rich
young ruler had money, but it controlled him, and Jesus
wanted him to learn that real joy was not found in what we
own, but living for the right purpose. Repeatedly throughout
the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) we see Jesus
invited people to leave their lifestyles and side with His party,
and He is still issuing that invitation today.
Living for God, serving Him and others, can be a blast if
we look at it with the mind of Christ. I am working all day today
and I can either look at it as w-o-r-k, or I can decide I am going
to have a party (fun) while I do my work. It comes down to a-t-
t-i-t-u-d-e! What will my attitude be? The mission that Jesus
had could not have been any more serious and yet I am
positive that He laughed with His disciples, made jokes about
their goofy ways, enjoyed food, rested, and somehow managed
to turn the mission into something that was enjoyable. When
we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and decide we want to be
a Christian and live a Christian lifestyle we are not going to a
solemn assembly or a funeral, we are joining His party! My
favorite image of Jesus is one I have seen of Him laughing.
 Jesus can even make dying to self, which means being
delivered from selfish, self-centered living, an interesting
journey if we look at it properly. I speak a lot on spiritual
maturity, dying to selfishness, taking up our cross and living
holy lives, and I am continually amazed at how much people
laugh while I do it. Somehow the Holy Spirit brings the
teaching out of me in a way that makes people laugh while they
are being corrected. God is amazing! People tell me all the time
how funny I am and yet I speak a very straightforward, hard-
hitting message that is quite serious. I have joined Jesus’
party!
 You Are Invited to the Party

One of the most well known and loved Bible stories is about a
young man who left his father’s house to go out into the world
and live life his own way. He wasted all of his inheritance in
undisciplined living and finally ended up with a job feeding
hogs and eating what they ate. He made the brilliant decision
to return home to his father’s house realizing that he would
have a better life as a servant with his father than living the
way he was living in the world. His father saw him coming as
he looked into the distance and immediately planned a party.
The exact words he spoke were, “Let us revel and feast and be
happy and make merry” (Luke 15:23). He got his son new
clothes, a special ring, and new shoes, and he prepared an
amazing feast. He was extremely happy that his son had come
to his right mind and had returned home. Everyone was
enjoying the party, the music was loud, and the older son who
was returning from working in the field heard it. He asked what
was going on and when he heard the news he became
indignant and angry and refused to go to the party. His father
pleaded with him, but he preferred to sulk, feel sorry for
himself, and make accusations toward his brother and father.
None of his bad attitude prompted his father to stop the party,
but it did keep him from entering in.
The older brother reminded his father that he had served
and worked for him many years and never caused any trouble,
and not once had anyone given him a party. His father replied
that he could have had a party anytime he wanted one,
because everything the father had was always his. To me, this
is a most amazing lesson and one that we cannot afford to miss
seeing. God loves us, and all that He has is ours as long as we
belong to Him. He appreciates our work and effort to please
Him, but if we refuse to enjoy the benefits of being a child of
God that is our fault, not His. We can have a party any time we
want one. Every day can be a party if we learn the art of
celebration.

Jesus said that the kingdom of Heaven is like a king who

gave a wedding banquet for his son, and he sent his servants
to summons those who had been invited but they refused to
come. He sent other servants and tried once again to get them
to come to the banquet (party) but they treated it with
contempt and each went away to his farm or business (see
Matt. 22:2–5). It is very sad to me that so many people live a
life of stress and pressure because they simply don’t know the
art and value of enjoying the journey.
 Feasts and Festivals

When I study the Old Testament and the lifestyle of the

Israelites, who were God’s chosen people, I see that it was
filled with parties. The first celebration we see recorded in
biblical history is the Sabbath, which was a celebration of
creation. God worked six days, and on the seventh day He
rested from His labors and took time to enjoy what He had
accomplished. He commanded that the seventh day of each
week be celebrated as a day holy to the Lord. The Sabbath was
a day when people would remember and celebrate all that He
had done for them, and what He had created (see Exod. 20:8–
11). It was a time of reflection, restoration, and celebration.
The Passover feast and celebration was instituted for
people to always remember how God had protected and
delivered them from the angel of death that passed through
Egypt, killing all of the firstborn animals and people (see Lev.
23:5). The slaying of the firstborn was a judgment on Pharoah
who had refused to obey God and let the Israelites go from
their slavery in Egypt.
This night was a night to remember, and it deserved a
yearly celebration. God wants us to remember what He has
done for us. If you are not Jewish you probably don’t celebrate
Passover, but we should keep the spirit of that feast by
celebrating similar things that God has done for us. We should
call them to mind, discuss them with friends and family, and
never stop celebrating the goodness of God in our lives.
 The Feast of Unleavened Bread began immediately
following the Passover feast and lasted seven days. It was
instituted to remind people of their exodus from Egypt and that
they had left the old life behind and were entering a new way of
living. Just imagine—they had one party right after another
(see Lev. 23:6–8).
The Feast of Firstfruits came next. It was a celebration at
the time of the barley harvest to remind the people how God
had provided for them (see Lev. 23:9–14). This feast lasted one
day.
The Feast of Pentecost came at the end of barley harvest
and the beginning of wheat harvest and showed joy and
thanksgiving over the bountiful harvest. This feast also lasted
one day.
The Feast of Trumpets was next, and it was a one-day
feast expressing joy and thanksgiving to God. Part of this
celebration was the blowing of trumpets (see Lev. 23:23–25).
The Day of Atonement was a big day (see Lev. 23:26–32),
a day when sin was removed from the people and the nation
and fellowship was restored with God. It was a day when the
people were required to afflict themselves with fasting,
penitence, and humility. I am glad as New Covenant Christians
we can have this celebration continually rather than once a
year. I am also glad that Jesus humbled and afflicted Himself on
our behalf and we can celebrate what He has done.

If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our

 sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and
promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our
lawlessness] and [continuously] (emphasis mine) cleanse
us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity
to His will in purpose, thought, and action].
1 John 1:9

The Feast of Tabernacles lasted seven days and was a

celebration of God’s protection and guidance in the desert as
the Israelites traveled from Egypt to the Promised Land. It
renewed Israel’s commitment to God as well as their trust in His
guidance and protection (see Lev. 23:33–43).
The Israelites also had a habit of celebrating after a job
well done. In Ezra 6:14–16 we see that the people celebrated the
finishing and dedication of the house they had built for God.
They celebrated weddings and probably birthdays and
anniversaries. They had a party when their children came of
age called bar mitzvah. Truthfully, it seems to me that they
used any excuse they could to celebrate and that the
celebrations were not only sanctioned by God, they were
ordered and ordained by Him.
Are you beginning to catch my drift? God definitely likes a
party!
Celebrate Your Progress

ur youngest grandson recently stood alone for the first time.

We were out of town on this joyous occasion, but we received
a phone call telling us the great news. I vividly remember that
there were four adults in the car when we received the news
and three of us acted fairly ridiculously about the event. I
actually clapped my hands together. Dave grinned from ear to
ear and in a very surprised tone said, “REALLY!” A good
friend was also in the car and she got excited. I heard questions
like, “How long did he stand there?” and “Has he done it more
than once?” Nobody asked if he sat down again, although we
all knew that he did. We were even aware that he could have
fallen down, but we did not care about anything other than his
progress. We had a similar scene at our house when he smiled
for the first time, ate his first solid food, crawled, and said
“mama” and “da-da.” We get really excited about any little
progress that he makes and we all express it to him to
encourage him. Dave and I just spent several days with the
baby, and, to be honest, we probably encouraged him
hundreds of times during those few days. I don’t remember
even one time that we chastised him for what he could not do
yet.
When I am out of town and call my son and daughter-in-
law, I always ask if Travis has done anything new. My
daughter-in-law sends me pictures of new things, like him in his
swimming pool, on his swing, or standing at his play table. God
used this example to help me understand that He celebrates our
progress just like we celebrate the progress of our children and
grandchildren. We celebrate our dog’s progress by giving her
treats. We even have some that are in the shape of a cookie! If
we can take time to make an effort to celebrate the dog going
potty outside, then surely we can find time to celebrate our
own progress. Celebration strengthens us. In fact, I believe
that if we don’t celebrate occasions of progress, we are
weakened and experience unnecessary defeat.
Our dog was staying with a friend while we were out of
town, and she told me that even though she was taking
Duchess out to go potty, she would come in, look at her, squat
in front of her and tinkle on the floor. I was shocked and could
not understand it until I asked if they were giving her treats
after she did her job outside. They were not giving them to her,
and she was letting them know that if they were not going to
celebrate her progress and give her a treat, then she would
make a real mess for them to deal with. Perhaps we are the same
way—if we don’t get our treats we display bad behavior!
God isn’t keeping a record of each time we fall, but He is
excited about our progress, and we should be excited, too! I
spent way too many years mourning over my faults and
weaknesses. I was taught to grieve over my sin, but nobody in
the church world ever told me to celebrate my progress, and I
think that is tragic. If you have missed this important lesson
like I did, then today I am telling you to celebrate, celebrate,
and then celebrate your progress some more.

I am not where I want to be in terms of holy behavior, but

thank God I am not where I used to be. I have made a lot of
progress in the thirty-three years that I have had a serious
relationship with God. God has changed me so much that truly
I am a new creature just as His word promises in 2 Corinthians
5:17. My husband probably thinks he has been married to
several women during his journey with me, because I certainly
am not like the one he started with. Change and progress are
beautiful. They are a sign that we are alive and God is working!
We need to celebrate progress.
The Bible discusses rejoicing 170 times, and if we study
the word we find it is an emotion that needs an outward
expression. We may clap our hands like I did when I heard
about my grandson’s progress, we might shout as Dave did
when our last son was born and he had the privilege of being
in the delivery room, or we might go get a pedicure because we
are rejoicing over and celebrating the fact that we have not
wasted a day in self-pity for three months. If you are really
rejoicing, you might even eat a cookie while you get the
pedicure!
The Bible says that the path of the righteous grows
brighter and brighter every day (Prov. 4:18). If you can look
back and say, “I’ve improved over the last year. My behavior
is a little bit better. I’m a little more patient. I’m more giving. I’m
a tiny bit less selfish. Then you can celebrate! If you feel you
have made no progress at all then the devil is probably lying to
you. He has a bad habit of reminding us daily of how far we
still have to go. I have noticed that the devil is not very
encouraging or complimentary and that listening to him is very
counterproductive. If you are reading this book it means that
you want to improve and the truth is that anyone who wants to
improve will improve. Your path is growing brighter and clearer
every day and celebrating our progress is one of the ways we
say “Thank You” to God.
Last night I lost my temper over the remote control for the
television. I had worked hard all day on this book and finally
got all settled in to watch a movie. When I turned the television
on I noticed that the remote control was flashing “low battery.”
It had just enough battery power to turn the television on, but
then it went dead and wouldn’t even so much as turn it off.
The volume had come on really loud, and I couldn’t turn it
down. I called for Dave and although he was almost in the
shower, he heard the panic in my voice and decided to get
dressed and to try to rescue me. We thought it would be an
easy fix. We would simply put new batteries in the remote, but
we only had three batteries and it required four. My creative
side kicked in and I suggested that we take the batteries out of
a remote for one of the other televisions in the house and use
them in the remote for the one we wanted to watch that
evening (it had a bigger screen).
We got all the batteries on the coffee table and of course
neither one of us can see without our glasses on. We got our
glasses, but for some reason we were not seeing well even with
them. The light was dim in the room, but being a male and
unwilling to admit that he could not see, Dave continued to put
the batteries in, first one way and then another, without
success. By this time, neither of the remote controls worked.
The batteries were spread out on the coffee table, and we
probably had the good ones mixed up with the bad ones. At
this point in our journey I wanted to try to fix them myself.
Dave wouldn’t give them to me, and I was getting angrier by
the second. As we went to the sliding glass door so hopefully
we could see better with outside light, from a leaned-over
position we both raised up at the same time and Dave’s hard
head hit mine. I sounded as if I had lost my salvation for a few
seconds.
Of course as soon as I calmed down I felt bad that I’d lost
my temper, but since I now know that I am not built for guilt I
had to resolve the situation. I admitted my mistake, asked God
to forgive me and tried to think of how I was going to celebrate
this mess. I suddenly realized that although I could not
celebrate losing my temper, I could celebrate the fact that I was
forgiven!
Years ago I would have felt guilty for days before I finally
crawled out of the pit of despair and would have been sure that
God was terribly disappointed with me. Now I know that
nothing I do surprises Him! He knew all about me before I was
ever born and still wants a relationship with me. He feels the
same way about you. I strongly imagine that Jesus had a good
laugh last night as He watched Dave and me try to fix the
remote controls. We are often like a modern version of Lucille
Ball and Desi Arnaz from I Love Lucy. If God recorded anything
from last night, I am sure it was the fact that I have grown to
the point that I don’t waste time mourning over something that
Jesus made provision for on the cross, which is our sins.
Find ways to celebrate your progress instead of mourning
excessively over your mistakes. I am not suggesting that we
don’t take our sins seriously because we should, but let’s also
celebrate God’s mercy and forgiveness.
The morning after the television remote fiasco I had
another interesting challenge. I needed a certain makeup brush
that I knew I had used the previous day. I rummaged through
my makeup and could not find it, so I got up and took
everything out of the container one thing at a time and still
could not find it. I knew for sure that I used it the day before. I
searched the drawer, another box, the cabinet under the sink,
and finally took a deep breath and used a different brush. As
soon as I had finished applying all of my makeup and had my
hair fixed, I found the brush. It was a black brush and the
counter top on the sink is also black, so it had been right in
front of me all the time but I did not see it.
The reason I bring this up is because although it was
frustrating, I didn’t get upset about it as I had done the night
before with the other situation. I believe if I had spent the
evening condemning myself because I’d gotten angry, then I
probably would have gotten angry again the next day.
Condemnation weakens us and we keep repeating the same
error over and over, but celebration strengthens us. You may
remember that I had chosen to celebrate the fact that I was
forgiven, and as I said I believe it helped me resist the
temptation to get angry the next time I was confronted with
something ridiculous that was just stealing my time. The devil
doesn’t like a party or any kind of authentic joy or celebration,
so perhaps if we learn to do it more, we will hear less from him.
 Punishment or Reward

How can you motivate yourself to do the things you know you
need to do? Is it better to reward yourself for doing well and
making progress, or to punish yourself when you make
mistakes or do not reach your expectations? I believe
experience teaches us that rewarding ourselves for a job well
done is always better than punishment.
I have set some goals for myself at the gym for this year. I
want to move up in the amount of weight I can bench press
and I also want to be able to do lunges in such a manner that
my knee touches the floor during the exercise. If you don’t
know what either of these exercises are, let me just say that for
a woman my age who did not begin exercising until two years
ago, they both mean pain!
I reached my goal on the bench press within a month after
setting it, but I have not been able yet to reach my goal with
the lunges. Suppose I decide to punish myself for not reaching
the one goal by denying myself the privilege of eating dessert
for two weeks, but I do nothing to reward myself for the other
goal I did reach. Experience teaches us that I would begin to
connect the lunges with punishment and would more than
likely begin to dread and despise the lunges. I might even
lower my goal so I could remove the punishment.
On the other hand, if I continued to try to reach my goal
concerning lunges, but rewarded myself in some way for
reaching my goal with bench presses, I would try harder to
reach my other goal because I would mentally connect goal-
reaching with reward. I already know that I am going to reward
myself and celebrate after I finish this book, and knowing that
makes it easier for me to keep working.
As parents we are often tempted to punish our children
for what they do wrong, yet we fail to notice and reward what
they do right. I think we should make a big deal out of our
children’s strong points and downplay their weaknesses. I
remember getting in trouble a lot while I was growing up, but I
honestly don’t remember much encouragement. I do remember
my father telling me that I would never amount to anything.
Nobody ever told me I could do anything I set my mind to, or
that I had God-given abilities that I needed to develop. I left
home at age eighteen with a determination to prove to the
world and myself that I had value and ability, but I went about
it the wrong way. I became a workaholic who had never learned
how to value reward and enjoyment.
I recently saw a movie about a child whose mom was a
severe perfectionist, and no matter what kind of work the child
brought home from school the mom always found something
that could have and should have been done better. She never
mentioned what the child did well. Of course, the girl felt so
discouraged that her grades began sliding downhill. However,
she got a new teacher who was a very positive lady who knew
how to motivate children. She immediately saw that the child
needed encouragement and began to give it to her in generous
proportions. Each thing the child did a good job with was
complimented in writing on her papers. For example, instead of
saying, “You spelled two words wrong,” she said, “Your
handwriting is beautiful and your story is great. Your spelling
can improve a little, but we will work on that together.” You
guessed it—the child loved the teacher and began to improve
dramatically because she responded better to reward than she
did to punishment.
I find that rewarding myself even in small ways motivates
me. It gives me something to look forward to while I am doing
the job that needs to be done. As I write this book I set goals
for myself each day of how much I want to finish, and as I
reach that goal I stop and do something that I enjoy. I go to a
little restaurant in town that I really enjoy and sit out on the
patio and eat, or I make a latte for myself and take a break, or I
go get a massage. I could name a dozen things, but I think you
get the point. What I enjoy may be different than what you
enjoy, but you need to reward yourself as you work toward
reaching your goals. Yesterday I worked longer than usual and
I already know in my heart that today I need to work a little less
and do something I enjoy so I don’t get too weary of just
writing and writing and writing. I refuse to be a driven person
who is afraid to follow my heart.
 Celebrate Change

As children of God we need to be committed to change.

Throughout our journey here on earth God’s Spirit will be
working with and in us, helping us change for the better. In
order to make progress we need to see what we are doing
wrong, and be willing to learn better ways to do it. God wants
us to see truth (reality) so we can agree with Him that change is
needed, but we don’t need to punish ourselves when we see
our faults or to feel guilty and condemned. We can even learn
to celebrate the changes that need to be made in us and our
lives.
When Jesus ascended to Heaven He sent the Holy Spirit
to help us make progress in holy behavior. The Holy Spirit
works holiness in us, and He does it through convicting us of
wrong behavior and convincing us to do things God’s way. He
not only shows us what needs to change, He also gives us the
strength to change. He is our Strengthener! John 16:7–13 gives
us understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
He is our Comforter, Counselor, Teacher, Helper, Advocate,
Intercessor, Strengthener, and Standby. He lives in close
fellowship with us. That means He is always present and His
goal is to help us be what God wants us to be so we can enjoy
what God wants us to enjoy. Every believer’s life should bring
glory to God, and that requires an attitude that says, “Change
me and make me what you want me to be.”
Change and growth is a process that will continue as long
as we are on earth in our human bodies. Progress is vitally
important, but perfection is impossible. We can have perfect
hearts toward God and His plan for us, but our behavior will
always be lacking perfection in one way or another.

You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete

maturity, having reached the proper height of virtue and
integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48

We can see from this Scripture that perfection means

growing! I am of the opinion that as long as we are cooperating
with the Holy Spirit to the best of our ability, and we sincerely
want to change, God counts us as perfect in Christ while we
make the journey.
Conviction is the tool the Holy Spirit uses to let us know
we are doing something wrong. We sense inside of us that our
actions, words, or attitudes are wrong. What should our
attitude be toward this conviction? I think it needs to be a
joyful attitude.
 Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults
and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I
discipline and instruct them]. So be enthusiastic and in
earnest and burning with zeal and repent [changing your
mind and attitude].
Revelation 3:19

God views conviction, correction, and discipline as

something to be celebrated rather than something to make us
sad or frustrated. Why should we celebrate when God shows
us that something is wrong with us? Enthusiasm sounds like a
strange response, but in reality the fact that we can see
something that we were once blind to is good news. For many
years of my life I was able to be rude, insensitive, and selfish
and not even know it. I had a master’s degree in manipulation,
but actually had myself convinced that I was only trying to
help people do what was right. Of course I did not see the pride
I had that caused me to think my way was always the right way.
I was greedy, envious, and jealous but I did not see any of it.
That is a sad condition to be in, but people who have no
relationship with Jesus and who do not study God’s word are
blind and deaf in the spiritual sense.
My heart was hard from years of being hurt by people,
harboring bitterness, and doing things my own way. When our
heart is hard we are not sensitive to the touch of God. When
He convicts us we don’t feel it. Therefore, when we make
enough progress in our relationship with God that we begin to
sense when we are doing something wrong, that is good news.
It is a sign of progress and should be celebrated joyfully. The
longer we serve God and study His ways the more sensitive we
become. We eventually grow to the place where we know
immediately when we are saying or doing something that is not
pleasing to God and we have the option of repenting and
making a fresh start.
My response to conviction used to be immediately
coming under condemnation. Condemnation presses us down
and weakens us, it makes us feel guilty and miserable, but
conviction is intended to lift us out of a fault. The Holy Spirit
shows us our fault, and then helps us overcome it. When
God’s conviction quickly turned into guilt for me I dreaded it
and my attitude was, “Great! Another thing wrong with me that
I have to try to fix.” I did not understand the process at all; so
due to lack of knowledge on my part, the devil was able to take
the things God meant for my good and turn them into torment.
How do you respond when you are convicted by the Holy
Spirit that you are doing something wrong? Do you feel bad
and guilty, or do you realize that the very fact that you can feel
God’s conviction is good news? It means that you are alive to
God and growing spiritually.
I believe we should be thankful when God convicts us,
and we truly should celebrate the fact that we have seen
something that will help us change and be able to glorify God
more. Each time you are convicted of sin, try lifting your hands
in praise and saying, “Thank You, God, that You love me
enough not to leave me alone in my sin. Thank You that I can
feel Your displeasure when I sin. Thank You for changing me
into what You want me to be.” This kind of attitude will open
the way for you to make progress rather than being stuck in
your sin due to being blind to it, or through condemnation from
the devil.
When God shows us a fault He does not expect us to fix it.
He only wants us to acknowledge it, to agree with Him, to be
sorry for it, and to be willing to turn away from it. He knows—
and we need to know—that we cannot change ourselves, but
He will change us if we study His word and cooperate with His
Holy Spirit.
Change of all types is worth celebrating because it is
required for progress. The process may not bring joy, but later
on it will produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness that God
desires and that we can enjoy (see Heb. 12:11). Give yourself
permission to lighten up and don’t be so intense about your
own perfection. Do your best and let God do the rest. As long
as you are making progress God is pleased.
Celebrate through Giving

hroughout the Bible we see people celebrating progress and

victory in a variety of ways. One of those ways was to
specifically take the time to give an offering to God and to
thank Him.
Noah had been in the ark one year and ten days when God
told him it was time to go forth and begin a new life. I cannot
even imagine how happy he and his family (and the animals)
were to see dry ground and have their feet on solid soil. The
first thing that Noah did was to build an altar to the Lord and
sacrifice various animals to Him. In Noah’s day this was the
acceptable method of giving to God and showing appreciation
for what He had done. God was pleased when He smelled the
pleasant odor and He pronounced a blessing on Noah and his
sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth” (Gen. 9:1).
We would quickly add a lot of celebration time to our lives
if we would take the time to give thanks and perhaps some
other type of offering when God does amazing things for us.
An attitude of gratitude shows a lot about the character of a
person. We should never have an attitude of entitlement, but
we should have one that says, “I know I don’t deserve God’s
goodness, but I am sure grateful for it.”

Abram (later renamed Abraham) regularly built altars to

God and sacrificed, giving praise and thanks to God for his
progress as he journeyed through the land. God had asked
Abram to leave everything he was familiar with, including home
and family, and go to a place that would be shown to him as he
went. I cannot even imagine the difficulty of obeying such a
request. Leave everything! Go where? What for? Abram found
the courage to go and throughout his journey he took time to
celebrate the progress he had made so far (see Gen. 12:7–8,
13:4). God was leading him, taking care of him and keeping him
safe. Surely at the end of each day we should take time to
celebrate in our hearts that God has kept us safe and enabled
us to do whatever needed to be done. The evening meal could
be used as a point of contact for this type of celebration. The
feasts of Israel usually included food, so why not turn an
ordinary dinner into a celebration? It won’t take any special
preparation; all you will need is a heart full of thanksgiving and
a willingness to take a few moments and express it to God.
It is easy for us to get caught up in looking at how far we
have to go in reaching our goals instead of celebrating how far
we have come. Think about it. How far have you come since
you became a Christian? How much have you changed? How
much happier are you? Are you more peaceful than you were
before? Do you have hope? There is always plenty to celebrate
if we look for it.

A thorough study of the Bible shows us that the men and

women who God used in mighty ways always had the attitude
of celebrating what God had done. They did not take His
goodness for granted, but they openly showed appreciation
for little things as well as big ones.
 God Parted the Red Sea

Have you ever had a time when you felt that your back was
against the wall? You had a big problem and no solution, and
then suddenly God did something amazing and enabled you to
escape safely from your problem. Most of us can think of a
time like that. When the Israelites were led out of Egypt by God
working through Moses, they eventually found themselves in
a very distressing situation. The Red Sea was in front of them
and the Egyptian army was behind them. They had no place to
go; they were trapped! God had promised their deliverance,
and what He did was amazing indeed. He actually parted the
Red Sea and the Israelites walked across on dry ground, but as
the Egyptian army followed, the sea closed up over them and
they drowned.
When the Israelites reached the other side, the first thing
they did was start to celebrate. They sang a song that came
straight from their hearts, recorded in nineteen verses in the
Bible (see Exod. 15:1–19). After the song, two of the women
took out a type of tambourine, and all the women followed
them with their tambourines and they danced and sang some
more. The entire song talked of what God had done, how great
He was, how He had redeemed them and dealt with their
enemies. We would probably experience more victory in life if
we would take time to celebrate the ones we have already had.
Once again, it is operating on the principle of being grateful for
what we have instead of taking an inventory of what we do not
have yet.
 God Rebuilds the Broken-down

Many of us are in a broken-down condition when we finally

humble ourselves and ask God to do His work in us. God is a
builder and a restorer of what was once lost and destroyed. I
had lost my innocence through abuse, I had no confidence,
was filled with shame, guilt, bitterness, and many other painful
emotions. But, God! I love that phrase which is found in God’s
word. But, God—worked in my life and has rebuilt and restored
what was once broken down and useless. History is filled with
records of people who can tell a similar story.
Nehemiah and his kinsmen (the Jews) who had escaped
exile lived in pitiful conditions. The wall of their city was
broken down, and for any town in those times that was a
dangerous thing. Their wall was their protection from the
surrounding enemies who seemed to be everywhere.
Nehemiah was told of the terrible condition his kinsmen
lived in and, after weeping, fasting, and praying for days, he
went to the king and asked for permission and timber to rebuild
the temple gate, the city wall, and a house for himself to live in.
Nehemiah was a man of action. When he saw a need or an
injustice he wanted to do something about it, and we should be
the same way. I think it is interesting that he asked to help the
people and he was willing to work hard, but he also asked for a
house for himself. Perhaps he realized that by the time he got
the project finished he would need a nice place in which to live
and relax.
 The project was a huge one, and it took a long time and a
lot of determination. During the rebuilding Nehemiah and the
other workers experienced constant opposition from their
enemies who tried to prevent them from building by distracting
them. However, persistence paid off and eventually the project
was completed. One of the first things they did after they
reached their goal was to celebrate! Ezra the priest told the
people, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet drink, and
send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this
day is holy to our Lord. And be not grieved and depressed, for
the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold” (Neh.
8:10).
Notice that the priest told them to rejoice. It was the right
thing to do spiritually. The party was sanctioned by God or,
even better, it was commanded by God. Just imagine God told
them to eat fat and sugar! Sounds like a cookie day to me!
They needed to celebrate a good job well done. Celebration is
part of our recovery. It revives us for the next project or job we
have to do. Do you take time to celebrate when you finish a
project, or do you merely begin the next one? If you don’t
reward yourself in some way for your hard work you are
missing out on part of God’s plan. Remember, He rewards
those who are diligent (see Heb. 11:6).
God not only told them to enjoy themselves, but He told
them to send portions to those who were in need. I have
learned over the past few years through studying God’s love
that giving to others is one of the ways we can and should
celebrate our own victories. It is a way of saying, “I sure am
happy about what God has done for me, and I want to reach
out and make someone else happy.”
Esther was used by God to bring deliverance to the Jews.
A wicked man named Haman had a plot to destroy them—but,
God! God had his own plan and it was a plan for deliverance.
He used Esther and her uncle Mordecai to bring this wicked
plan to the attention of the king and through them God
achieved deliverance for the Jews. When the victory had been
won the Jews gathered together to celebrate. They needed it
and God wanted them to have it. Mordecai recorded the things
that had taken place because it was part of the Jewish history
that needed to be passed on to their descendants. He also
commanded that the Jews keep the fourteenth and fifteenth
day of the month of Adar, the days of their victory, yearly as a
time of celebration and remembering what God had done. They
were instructed to remember that their sorrow had been turned
into gladness and “from mourning into a holiday—that they
should make them days of feasting and gladness, days of
sending choice portions to one another and gifts to the poor”
(Esther 9:22).
Giving is a central part of the Christian lifestyle and we
should do it aggressively and with joy. God has given us His
Son Jesus as the best gift He could give and in Jesus we have
all other things. In Him we have been blessed with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm (see Eph. 1:3).
It is the will of God that we give thanks at all times and in
everything (see 1 Thess. 5:18). Thanksgiving must have an
expression in order to be complete. We can say that we are
thankful, but do we show it? Are we expressing it? We say
“thank you,” but there are other ways of showing appreciation
and one of them is giving to people who have less than we do.
Giving to the poor is commanded by God. It is one of the ways
we can keep a continual cycle of blessing operating in our
lives. God gives to us and we show appreciation by giving to
someone else, and then He blesses us some more so we can do
it all over again.
The Bible puts it plainly. When God blesses you as He
promised, find a poor man and give to him. Do not harden your
heart, but open your hands wide to your brethren. If you give
to him freely without begrudging it then the Lord will bless you
in all your work and all that you undertake (see Deut. 15:6–8,
15:10). What we give to others as a result of obedience to God
is never lost. It leaves our hand temporarily, but it never leaves
our life. We give it, God uses it to bless someone else, and then
He returns it to us multiplied. I like the way God does things,
don’t you?
 Altars and Memorials

Under the Old Covenant, men and women of God regularly

built altars and sacrificed animals or grain on them as an
outward sign of their inward gratitude. As we have seen, they
frequently established yearly holidays that were to
commemorate and bring to remembrance something wonderful
God had done for them. The Bible has 396 references to altars.
We find them mentioned from Genesis to Revelation. They
have historically always been a part of worship, praise, and
thanksgiving, and they will even be in Heaven, according to
what the Apostle John saw and recorded in the book of
Revelation.
We also find several references to memorials. These were
altars or buildings or permanent objects that served as
reminders. They could also be a day or days set aside yearly
for the purpose of remembering. Altars and memorials are solid
objects that give substance to our show of thankfulness.
People often build some type of memorial as an object that will
stand as a reminder of their lost loved ones. We put
tombstones on graves as memorials. We give awards, plaques,
and trophies, which are objects that help us remember our
victories. We are spiritual beings, but we also have souls and
bodies and we need to have tangible objects as references to
remind us of things.
Another thing the Israelites did was to write things down
as a memorial to what God had done. I have kept a journal of
the challenges in my life and the victories for thirty-three years.
The Bible that we love and base our life on is a memorial to
what God has done for us. When we see our Bible it
immediately says all kinds of things to us. We may not take the
time to think through all of them, but oddly enough the
presence of a Bible can give comfort even to people who don’t
know one word that is in it. The Bible reminds us that God
exists and has something to say to us. Have you ever made a
notation in your Bible next to a verse that spoke to you during
a particular time of challenge or joy? As I leaf through my
Bible, I see notes in the margins, sometimes accompanied by
the date, and I remember exactly what I was going through
when that verse spoke to me. As I reread it, I’m visiting the
memorial of a moment in time when God moved me in a special
way.
I firmly believe that saying “thank you” is good, but doing
something tangible, at least part of the time, is even better.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank

offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and
say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name!
Psalm 100:4

Please notice that the Psalmist suggested we come with

thanksgiving (words) and a thank offering (something
tangible). When we come together in church to worship, giving
is part of our worship. It is a tangible way of saying, “God, I
really appreciate all that you have done for me.” Giving is a
way to celebrate the goodness of God. Why not make a
decision to be more generous than you have ever been in your
life? You cannot outgive God because He will take your gift,
bless someone with it, and bring it back to you multiplied.
What you give may be gone temporarily, but it never leaves
your life. Giving brings joy to us and blessing to others.
A Time to Remember

have often said that I think we forget what we should

remember and remember what we should forget. Jesus
chastised the disciples on one of their journeys because they
had forgotten about a miracle He had done. They had started
out on a trip and suddenly remembered that they had forgotten
to bring enough bread. They only had one loaf and that would
not be nearly enough. In a short while Jesus began to teach the
disciples to beware of, and on their guard concerning, the
leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. Jesus of course was talking
about being on their guard against deception, but the disciples
reasoned among themselves that He was talking about the fact
that they had forgotten to bring bread, as if that would have
concerned Jesus at all. He then began to chastise them, asking
if they had forgotten when He fed five thousand people with
five loaves of bread. Had they forgotten another amazing
miracle when He fed four thousand with seven loaves? Had
they remembered, they would not be worried about going
hungry because of not having brought enough bread with
them.
If we would remember the miracles God has done in our
past we would not so easily fall into worry and fear when we
have new challenges to face. When David was facing Goliath
and nobody was encouraging him, he remembered the lion and
the bear that he had already slain with God’s help. Because of
remembering the past, he had no fear of the current situation.

Are you facing something right now that looms before

you like a giant in your life? Is it illness or financial lack? Is it
relationship problems? Is it something you have never done
before and you don’t know where to begin? The truth is that it
doesn’t matter what it is because nothing is impossible for
God. Take some time right now and recall some of the things
He has helped you with and brought you through in the past.
Think about and talk about those things and you will find
courage filling your heart.
 I was abused for approximately fifteen years; my first
husband abandoned me when I was pregnant and he lived with
another woman. I had breast cancer in 1989; I had to have a
hysterectomy: I suffered with migraine headaches for ten years.
I have been deserted by friends, lied to, stolen from, and talked
about in false and ungodly ways, but God has been faithful
and I am still here with a good report and I am using my
experience to help others. I know many of you have the same
type of testimony. For our own preservation we absolutely
must remember, recount, and recall the mighty things that God
has done for us and others.
A party often commemorates a special occasion or an
important event like a birthday, an anniversary, a retirement, or
a special achievement. Although these types of memorials are
necessary and good, the best ones are when we remember
God’s intervention in the past saving us from destruction. It
fills us with fresh faith and hope, and it encourages us—
another way of saying it is that it gives us courage. No wonder
that God says He is to be remembered from generation to
generation.
God told the Israelites to remember that they were slaves
in Egypt and to remember all the miracles He did there to
convince Pharoah to let them go. He told them to not be afraid
of their enemies but to remember what He did to Pharoah and
to all of Egypt (see Deut. 7:18). He told them to remember all the
ways He led them in the wilderness to humble and prove them,
and to see if they would keep His commandments or not (see
Deut. 8:2). They were to remember the difficulty along the way
and the mighty acts of God in delivering them. When they were
thirsty He brought water out of a rock, and when they were
hungry He rained manna for food out of the sky each morning.
Their shoes and clothing did not wear out for forty years. Talk
about needing a new outfit—that must have been the ultimate!
Jesus told His disciples and all those who would ever
believe in Him to receive Holy Communion as a way of
remembering His death and resurrection. He said that the bread
was His body broken and the wine was His blood. As He
shared the bread and wine with His disciples at the last supper
He said, “Do this often in remembrance of me.” It was
established as an outward sign of an inner faith and it is
something very important that we should do also.
Don’t take communion just once a month, or however
often you do it, as a ritual, but take the time to remember what
Jesus did on the cross. Don’t just go out for dinner on your
wedding anniversary, but take the time to talk about the years
you and your spouse have had together. Talk about the hard
times and the good times. When another year is gone and it is
your birthday again, don’t let it pass you by without
remembering the things you have accomplished in life, the
friends you have had, and the times you laughed so hard that
your belly hurt. When I had my birthday dinner recently my
son said, “Let’s tell stories.” I knew what he meant because we
have done it before, and those times have turned out to be our
best evenings together.
I asked him what he remembered most about growing up
and he recalled several events. Some I had forgotten, some I
had never known, and others I had heard before, but they were
all touching and worth remembering. Dave and I shared things
we remembered about him and somehow when the evening was
over we felt closer. He even sent me a text message the next
day saying what a blast he and his wife had with us the night
before. Believe me, when you are in your sixties, and you have
a child in his twenties who tells you that he had a blast with
you—it is something to remember! Laugh a lot with your
children. They want you to be fun to be with. Refrain from
finding something wrong with the way they dress or style their
hair, or what they choose to eat. When you get time with your
grown children turn it into a party. You had the first part of
their life to correct them, now it is God’s turn. From now on you
get to enjoy them.
There are 161 references to the word “remember” in the
Bible concordance, sixty-two for the word “remembered” and
four for “remembering.” There are sixty-five references to the
word “forget,” and most of those are reminding us not to forget
what God has done and how He has delivered us in the past.
There are times to forget and things to forget. For example,
when the Apostle Paul said that he forgot what was behind, he
was talking about not being condemned over past mistakes
(see Phil. 3:13). In Isaiah we are taught not to earnestly
remember the things of old because God is doing a new thing.
All that means is that we are not to get stuck in the past and
never want or be ready for change. We hear a lot of teaching
about forgetting the past and although there are times to do
that, we should also be taught to remember the past and pass it
on to future generations.
 History is His-Story

Any history book is simply an account of what has happened

in the past. In America we now find that the history books
have been revised and most of the references about God have
been taken out of them. We no longer have our true history
easily available, and that is a tragedy. History books in public
schools are written without references to God or His word, so
in reality what the students are taught is not true history at all.
America was founded by godly men and women, on the word
of God. Our constitution and law books were based on the
word of God. The government buildings in our capital have the
word of God etched in the walls and foundation stones.
America is great because she has been godly, but if the
Humanists have their way and are successful in removing the
memory of what God has done in America, then she will be
destroyed or at the very least become a country we will not be
proud to live in. (Our ministry does have American history
books available that contain our country’s true godly heritage.)
The devil is using ungodly people to keep Americans and
the world from remembering what God has done in our past.
The amazing growth, power, wealth, and creative genius we
experienced in such a short period of time in the United States
was nothing less than amazing, and it was all because of God.
Man must not now try to push God out and take the credit
themselves, because if they do, the result may be something
we will truly not want to remember.
 The Bible is a history book of God’s story, and He warned
that no one should add to it or take from it. A person deciding
to change a history book does not alter the history but does
keep people from knowing it. If we don’t know where we came
from we usually don’t know what direction to take as we go
forward. If our history was good we can repeat it and if it was
bad then we can avoid repeating it. History, good or bad, is all
educational. Most of us want to know what has happened in
the past. We like to hear people’s stories, which is their
history. We like to go to museums and see movies about past
wars and tragic events like the sinking of the Titanic or Hitler
and the Holocaust. We are interested simply because it is
history and as such it is part of us. We feel more complete
when we know our history.
The Internet offers Web sites that help people establish
their family trees and I have often wondered if I have any
preachers or ministers in my family bloodline. Are there any
men or women who did great things, any writers, or inventors?
History beckons to us to dig in and find out what she holds.
Most of us are born curious. We like to search out a
mystery and history is filled with mystery. I know I, for one, am
amazed when I read about some of the battles that the Israelites
fought, and the variety of ways that God delivered them.
Knowing history increases our faith that if God did it once, He
can do it again.
If we don’t pass the true story of God down to the next
generations it will be tragic. Only truth can keep people free.
Tell your children everything you can about God. Tell them
Bible stories and help them remember the great things that God
has done. Be sure when you celebrate holidays like Christmas,
Easter, and Thanksgiving that you use them as an opportunity
to teach your children and to remind yourself of what they are
truly about. Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ. We honor Him by giving gifts to one another. People
historically give to the poor at Christmastime more than any
other time of the year. Christmas is a Christian holiday, but
many people celebrate it who have no specific religious
affiliation. It is just a day that they get together with family, go
to office parties, and give and receive gifts, but they have no
understanding of what it is really all about. We don’t want to
let ourselves fall into the trap of observing traditions that have
lost their meaning.
Thanksgiving is not just a day to eat turkey and pumpkin
pie. It was a day originally set aside to remember and give
thanks to God for what He had done in protecting the first men
and women who came to America to flee religious persecution
in Europe. It was a type of harvest celebration like the one that
the Jews celebrated. A day to give thanks for the crops they
were able to harvest. We should always take time at
Thanksgiving to actually give thanks and it should be a prayer
of more than thirty seconds. I suggest sitting in a group with
family or friends and letting each person share something in
particular they are thankful for that happened in the past year
as well as sharing their gratitude in general.
Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ
and should not focus on hunting colored eggs and getting
baskets filled with chocolate delivered by a rabbit. I am not
against the Easter bunny or Easter egg hunts, but we definitely
need to tell our children what the holiday truly represents.
These special holidays and others were instituted as
memorials, or ways to remember great things that God did in
the past, so let us make sure that we remember. Before you sit
down to a meal with family on Easter, why not get your Bible
out and read the story of the resurrection and offer a special
prayer of thanks for what God has done for us through Christ?
 Remember That God Remembers

It increases our faith when we remember that God remembers

us. He promises to never leave us or forsake us. He keeps one
eye on us all the time. He remembers all of our prayers. He
keeps our tears in a bottle, and does not forget the cry of the
humble, poor, and afflicted (see Ps. 56:8 and 9:12).
Just yesterday I spoke with a man whose wife died of
cancer at the age of thirty-nine, leaving him with four children
and a broken heart. He shared how he just thought he could
not go on until he read Psalm 121, reminding him that God is his
Keeper.

He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He

Who keeps you will not slumber.
Psalm 121:3

The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.
Psalm 121:8

This man needed to be reminded that even though he had

experienced a tragedy, God had not forgotten him. God was
watching over him and would enable him to do what needed to
be done. God would strengthen him.
A short time later he met a wonderful woman who had also
endured a tragedy in her marriage. They fell in love, married,
and together they have raised their seven children. Tragedy is
not the end of life, but it can be a new beginning. We may
never understand why some things happen the way they
happen, but no matter what happens, God is still God and He
has not forgotten you.
God forgives and forgets our sins (see Heb. 10:17), but He
never forgets us.
Celebrate Who You Are and What You Have

re you in the habit of looking at what you are not and what
you don’t have, or have you trained yourself to see who you
are, what you can do, and the resources you currently have
available? We need to learn to identify with Christ and
acknowledge the good things that are in us.

That the communication of thy faith may become effectual

by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you
in Christ Jesus.
Philemon 1:6 KJV

We easily form a habit of acknowledging the bad things

we do, but according to this Scripture we need to acknowledge
the good things in us through Christ Jesus in order for our
faith to be effectual.
The Apostle Paul prayed that we would have a spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God and the Lord
Jesus Christ, that the eyes of our heart would be flooded with
light so we might know the hope of His calling and the riches
of the glory of the inheritance that is ours. He also prayed that
we would know the exceeding greatness of God’s power
toward us who believe in Him (see Eph. 1:17–19).
It is very important that we have a spirit of wisdom and
revelation that we might know the following three things:
Number one, that we might have the knowledge of God, or that
we may know God Himself. This is not knowledge gained
through education, but it is knowledge gained through
revelation. It is a knowing that is revealed to us by God
Himself. Number two is that we might know the hope of our
calling, which means the eternal plan of God and how we fit
into it. God wants a possession and we are that possession.
We are His desired family. We must know that God is calling us
to be His sons and daughters and that as such we have an
inheritance. An inheritance becomes activated when the one
giving the inheritance dies, and since Jesus has died we must
realize that we have an inheritance now. We are not waiting for
one, but we have one now! Number three is the revelation
knowledge of God’s power that is available to us. We can do
anything that God asks us to do because of the greatness of
His power toward us. Paul states that this power of which we
are speaking cannot be measured; it is unlimited and surpasses
even the greatest thing we can imagine. Have many of us have
even begun to know this power? If this power is already
available to us, then why do so many of God’s children live
broken-down lives, filled with depression, discouragement, and
despair? We must not be afraid to ask these questions if we are
to find answers.
 Truly Know God

How wonderful it is that we may know the God of the Universe!

The Athenians built an altar to the unknown God (see Acts
17:23). With all of their education, reasoning, and philosophies,
they still could not understand God. The Bible teaches us that
eternal life is to know God.

And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive,

recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You,
the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him,
Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah),
Whom You have sent.
John 17:3

When Paul prayed for the Ephesians, they knew God and
had eternal life, but still Paul prayed for them to have wisdom
and revelation concerning knowing Him. They still needed to
know Him more. Knowing God is progressive and must be
sought after. Paul shares his deepest desire with us in
Philippians. Please take time to digest this Scripture:

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that

I may progressively become more deeply and intimately
acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and
 understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly
and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to
know the power outflowing from His resurrection.
Philippians 3:10

There is a big difference in knowing about God and

knowing God. When we truly know God, we also experience
(know) His power. Paul was determined and he understood that
the knowing he sought would be a lifelong pursuit. He knew
that the attaining of this knowledge was not something to be
gotten by reasoning or from book learning, but it had to be
given by revelation from God and would be acquired
progressively throughout his life. Thankfully, God is deep
enough that we will never know all there is to know. Only when
we go to Heaven will we be known even as He knows us now
(see 1 Cor. 13:12).
It saddens me when people frequently equate Christianity
with going to church and nothing more. In church we are
taught about God, but an intimate personal relationship with
God through Jesus Christ requires much more than a weekly
trip to church. To know Him we must be hungry for the type of
knowledge that can only come from God Himself through
revelation. It is a knowing that goes beyond what we think,
see, or feel. It is an inner knowledge of God that cannot be
taken from us through anything or anyone. When we have this
inner knowledge, nothing outward can sway us from our belief
in God. We no longer need evidence to protect our faith. We
trust God just as much if He does not give us what we want as
we would if He did. We do not need feeling or seeing, because
we know. Job said, “I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator
lives” (Job 19:25). Even though Job went through
unimaginably difficult and seemingly unfair things, He knew
God, and his knowledge carried him through the difficulties and
brought him to a new level of victory and blessing.
Many Christians live too much by feeling. If they feel
joyful and happy then they say God is blessing them, but if
they feel blah, cold, or flat then they might be heard asking,
“Where is God today?” If their prayer is not answered to their
satisfaction they ask where God is. When we experienced the
bombing of the Twin Towers in New York City on 9/11, a
newscaster asked, “Where was God when all of this
happened?” Had this newscaster known God, he would never
have asked such a question.
If we have a true knowledge of God we are not disturbed
by any scientific view, nor any theories of evolution, nor so-
called contradictions in Bible translations. We have come to a
perfect rest that God is, and knowing that, then we know that
nothing else matters. We do not feel a need to explain things
because we know what cannot be explained in words. Paul said
that he saw things when he had visions of Heaven that he
could not explain. Men always want to explain God, but if we
know Him truly, then the first thing we give up is trying to
understand Him or explain Him. The person who knows
spiritually has no need to understand mentally.
Pray daily for a spirit of wisdom and revelation that you
might know God and His Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed
One. Celebrate that you know God, that you are an eternal
being and that you are progressively coming to know Him
better as each day passes by. What an amazing blessing it is to
know God. It should make us sing, dance, clap our hands, and
shout for joy. Celebrate because you have joined Jesus’ party!
 Know God’s Call and Inheritance

God wants us to know what His eternal plan and purpose are.
He wants us to know the hope of our calling. He has chosen us
in Himself to be holy, to live before Him without blemish and in
love. This is God’s call and it is great indeed. How can we meet
such a calling since we are filled with weakness, inability, and
the liability to temptation? How can we be so flawed and yet
have the hope of being holy? It is beautifully simple when we
have revelation. We are made holy in Jesus Christ and we can
lift up our voices and confess out loud, “I am holy in Jesus
Christ, I am blameless and perfect in Him.” When any believer
comes to the place of knowing by revelation what is his right
now, he puts an end to searching relentlessly for something,
because he now knows that he has it! It is finished! It is done!
It is his! He can then easily become what he believes that he is.
What I just said in the last six sentences is extremely important
for each person to grasp, so I ask you to reread it. We must
understand what we have right now, otherwise we will spend
our lives struggling to obtain something that has been ours all
along.
I tried for many years to love other people, but I had no
revelation that God loved me and that I was in fact filled with
the love of God (see Rom. 5:5). It was easy for me to give love
away once I knew that I had it, but as long as I was stuck
trying to get something I already had, I was unable to give it.
We cannot give away what we do not realize that we have! No
wonder the Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus to
know what they had inherited in Christ. Perhaps the reason we
have difficulty accepting that holiness, peace, joy,
righteousness, redemption, deliverance, wisdom, victory, and
literally hundreds of others blessings are ours right now is
because of the way we see ourselves. We often look at
ourselves as mere human beings rather than as children of God.
We need to see what God sees. We need to look with the eye
of faith. We may think the things promised are ours after we
change and behave better, so we keep trying to improve and
tragically we never learn to come as we are.
 You Are Invited to a “Come as You Are”
Party

One of the first things we ask when we are invited to a party is,
“How should I dress?” Most of us like it best when we feel that
we can come as we are. We like it when we can relax and be
ourselves. I noticed this Scripture not too long ago and
thought about how marvelous it is and what a message of
acceptance it brings:

It is through Him that we have received grace (God’s

unmerited favor) and [our] apostleship to promote
obedience to the faith and make disciples for His name’s
sake among all the nations.
And this includes you, called of Jesus Christ and
invited [as you are] to belong to Him.
Romans 1:5–6

If you skipped over the Scripture please go back and read

it and particularly notice that you are invited as you are. God
will work in you by His Holy Spirit and help you become all
that you need to be, but you can come as you are. You don’t
have to stand afar and only hear the music of the party, you are
invited to attend.
You have joy and peace today. You are redeemed,
accepted, and made right with God. You are! Not “you will be
someday.” We are destined to be molded into His image and
nothing can stop it if we will simply come when He invites us.
We don’t have to clean up our act first. We don’t have to put
on a religious demeanor and get out our religious tone of voice.
Our view of God, ourselves, and His plan for us is too
small. God wants us to come out of smallness and see the
greatness of His calling and our inheritance in Him. When we
inherit a thing it means that we get what someone else worked
for. Jesus gained a prize for us. He worked for what we inherit,
and all we can do is receive it by faith. Nothing else is required.
Dave and I will leave our children an inheritance. They know
about it and will enjoy it when we die. At that time they will not
need to do anything but receive it and enjoy what Dave and I
worked our whole lives to be able to pass on to them. Can we
by faith receive what God has already done for us on the
cross? We should not be waiting for Him to do anything,
because He has done all that needs to be done. We need
revelation knowledge concerning what He has done that it is
ours right now. One step of faith will put you in the middle of
the greatest inheritance ever passed from one person to
another. That step of faith takes the struggle and frustration
out of life. As 1 John 4:17 says, even “as He is, so are we in
this world.” That is good news!
 We Need Vision

We do not need more of anything, but we do need vision

concerning what we already have. We need vision to do
greater things for the glory of God. When we truly know God
and we see the hope of His calling and our inheritance, we will
step up to do greater things. Smallness will no longer satisfy us
because we know that we have a great God and a great calling.
When God revealed Himself to Isaiah, the first thing Isaiah
did was to recognize the importance and power of words and
how vain many of his had been in the past (see Isa. 6:1–5). He
saw the holiness of God, and he had a revelation of God that
brought him to a place of repentance over some things
concerning his words. Perhaps it was his small talk about God
that convicted him.
Jesus asked Peter who people said that the Son of Man
was, and Peter replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say
Elijah; and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Then Jesus
asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” God is listening to
what we say about Him, about ourselves, and the plan of God
for our lives. He listens to see if we know Him and our
inheritance in Him. Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God” (Matt. 16:13–16). Jesus went on to tell Peter
that his knowledge had been revealed to him by God.
The other people looked at Jesus naturally and reasoned
as to who He might be. As we can see by their answers, they
really had no accurate knowledge. But Peter had revelation and
Jesus told him that on that revelation God would build His
church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
I tell you truly that when we know God, know His call and
inheritance, and go on to know His power, then the gates of
hell cannot ever prevail against us. We will do great things and
have joyful lives regardless of our circumstances. We will live
in the spirit of celebration because of what we know in our
hearts.
 Let Me Tell You What I Know

“Let me tell you what I know” would normally be a statement

filled with pride, but in this case I have a purpose. I want to tell
you what I know about you and me as Christians, and I am
going to do it from memory without looking anything up in the
Bible.
I know that we are children of God, and that we are called,
anointed, and appointed by Him for greatness. We are
destined to bring God glory and be molded into the image of
Jesus Christ. We have (not will have) righteousness, peace,
and joy in the Holy Spirit. We are forgiven for all of our sins
and our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Jesus
has gone before us to prepare a place for us that where He is
we may be also.
I know that until He returns for us, He has sent His Holy
Spirit as our guarantee of the even greater good things that are
to come. We are guaranteed an inheritance for it was
purchased with the blood of Jesus. We have a new covenant
and are offered a new way of living. We are made new
creatures in Christ, old things have passed away and all things
have become brand new. We can let go of past mistakes, and
press toward the mark of perfection. I know that God loves us
with an everlasting, unconditional love and that His mercy
endures forever. I know that all things are possible with God
and we can do all things through Christ Who is our Strength.
I know that God never allows more to come on us than we
can bear, but He always provides a way out, a safe place to
land. I know that all things work together for good to those
who love God and are called according to His purpose and that
what our enemies mean for harm, God intends for good. I know
t h at He is our Vindicator, our Redeemer, and Restorer. He
makes all things new.

We don’t have to worry because God has all power in

Heaven and on the earth and even under the earth, and He has
everything under control. I know that God hears and answers
our prayers. I know that God is our Keeper and we are safe.
We have been set free from the power of sin, we are seated in
heavenly places with Christ Jesus and we are made acceptable
to God through faith in Jesus.
The truth is that I could go for a while longer, but I think
by now you have the point. Before I knew these things I had
no power, no victory, and no hope, but now I know that my
Redeemer lives! I know that we should be celebrating what we
have right now, for truly we have more than enough in every
area of life! All of these wonderful things are currently ours
through our faith in Jesus Christ. In Him we are new creatures;
old things have passed away and all things are made new (see
2 Cor. 5:17). I quoted Philemon 1:6 from the King James Version
of the Bible in the previous chapter, but take a look at it in the
Amplified Translation:

[And I pray] that the participation in and sharing of your

faith may produce and promote full recognition and
appreciation and understanding and precise knowledge of
every good [thing] that is ours in [our identification with]
Christ Jesus [and unto His glory].
Philemon 1:6

Paul prayed that the Christians would know the good

things that were currently theirs, and that is my prayer for you.
 Know the Power of God

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul prayed that we would know

the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us. God is
powerful and anyone who believes in God surely believes that,
but the question is—do we believe that His power is available
to us and that it exists for us? Paul spoke of God’s power
toward us!
I lived in total defeat the first forty or so years of my life
because I did not know that I had power as a Christian. I
thought I just had to put up with whatever came my way and
try to muddle through until I died, at which time I could go to
Heaven. I can tell you for sure that a life as I have just
described does not give glory to God as we are called to do.
We must know His power toward us!
This is a power that has already been given. In Luke,
Jesus said, “Behold I have given you power…”. We do not
need to strive for power or hope to have power someday—we
have power now! The same power that raised Christ from the
dead dwells in us (see Rom. 8:11) and we can be quickened
(filled with life) by that power. This is not a onetime filling that
then slowly drains away as the days go by, but we can be daily
filled and even moment by moment we can experience His
presence and power in our lives. The starting place is to
believe! We must believe what God tells us in His word and we
must believe it beyond doubt. Even if we don’t feel powerful
we must believe that we have power, and it is not an effort to
do so if we have revelation knowledge concerning God’s
power toward us.
God’s power is indeed great and it is so great that unless
God opens our spiritual eyes (gives us revelation) we will never
grasp it. We have no way to determine how great God’s power
is because it cannot be measured and it has no limits. The good
news is that it is toward us. This good news is so exciting that I
think I feel a party coming on! I think I need to eat a cookie or
buy a pair of shoes or do something that makes me laugh; I
need to celebrate because I know that I will never be left in a
position of being without power!
This is better than knowing the head of the local power
company. I have to pay for the power that comes into my
home, but the power that I live by has been paid for by Jesus
Christ. If the power company called and told us that we had
been selected to have free power the rest of our lives, we
would get so excited that before long everyone we know would
know about the power available to us. We would not have to
worry about turning off lights, or how much our hot water
heater ran. And, what if the power company guaranteed us
power even during a storm? We would not need to fear storms.
We could look up and down the dark streets all around us
during a storm, but our lights and power would still be on. That
is the way it works when you are hooked into God’s unlimited
power by faith.
We are living in hard and perilous times, but the darkness
cannot put out our light because we have free, unlimited
power. I am excited and I feel like celebrating, so I think I will
take a break from my work, go make myself a wonderful latte,
hug my dog, and give my husband a big kiss!
Celebrate You

am back! The latte was great and so was the kiss.

Now we need to talk about celebrating you, because you
are valuable, and definitely someone worth a celebration! I
cannot write a book without telling you how awesome you are
and what great possibilities you have. I am afraid that perhaps
nobody else has ever told you, and I just cannot let you go
one more day without knowing the truth. You are fearfully and
wonderfully made and you are made for a purpose. As a
believer in Jesus Christ you are the home of God—yes, God
lives inside of you (see Eph. 3:17).
 He has invested Himself in you and given you talents and
abilities that equip you to do certain things. You are part of
God’s plan and purpose.
 What Do You Think of Yourself?

Have you ever taken time to think about what you think
about yourself? God thinks that you are special and He
celebrates you all the time. What is your attitude toward you?
Are you worth a celebration? In the Bible we are told to sing,
shout, rejoice, and be in high spirits because God has taken
away the judgment that was against us. He has come to live in
the midst of us and we have no need to fear. Because He loves
us He does not even mention past sins, and He exults over us
with singing (see Zeph. 3:14, 17).

These Scriptures don’t say that God is sitting in Heaven

crying and mourning because we make mistakes and are not all
that He had hoped we would be. They say that we should be in
high spirits (a good mood) because God loves us and is
singing over us. It sounds like a party to me!
When one lost sheep is found the shepherd rejoices (see
Matt. 18:13), so if you just became a believer in Jesus
yesterday, God is rejoicing over you. You may have a long way
to go before reaching spiritual maturity, and you may have
many faults that need to be dealt with, but God is still rejoicing
over you. He is always happy about how far we have come no
matter how far we still have to go. God always celebrates
progress!
 God Is Smiling over You

God is pleased with you! Now, before you decide to reject that
piece of good news let me give you some scriptural backing for
my statement. On two different occasions, a voice (God’s
voice) came out of Heaven saying that He was pleased with
His Son Jesus (see Luke 3:22 and Matt. 17:5). The first time this
occurred was at Jesus’ baptism and the second time was when
He and a few of His disciples were on the Mount of
Transfiguration. Both of these events were major ones in the
life of Jesus and I am sure that what God said was intended to
add to the celebration and encourage Jesus.
You are probably thinking as I did upon initially seeing
these Scriptures, “I can understand God saying that to Jesus
because He was perfect.” The Holy Spirit was trying to use
these Scriptures to encourage me to stop thinking that God
was mad at me most of the time and to dare to believe that He
was actually pleased with me. Like many Christians who lack
revelation I had the mistaken idea that every time I did
something wrong God was frowning and was a little bit angry
at me. That had been my experience with my earthly father and
I assumed God was the same way, but I was wrong. The
Psalmist David, the little shepherd boy who became king,
believed that God was pleased with him and yet we know from
Scripture that David was far from perfect.

He brought me forth also into a large place; He was

 He brought me forth also into a large place; He was
delivering me because He was pleased with me and
delighted in me.
Psalm 18:19

This statement also came out of David’s mouth as part of

a song that he sang to God on the day the Lord delivered him
from all of his enemies and the hand of Saul (see 2 Sam. 22:1,
20). Just imagine walking around the house or driving in your
car singing, “God is pleased with me and He delights in me!” I
doubt that many of us would have that kind of confidence, but
we should. David also said that he knew God favored him and
was delighted in him because his enemies did not triumph over
him (see Ps. 41:11).
Perhaps David was a little overly zealous and had an
attitude problem. After all, who would have the audacity to say
that God was pleased with him? But, we must also remember
that God said David was a man after His own heart, so that
means He liked his bold attitude of faith. It may have been one
of the main reasons that God chose and anointed him to be
king. David wasn’t the only one who talked like this. The
Apostle John also spoke of himself as being the disciple whom
Jesus loved (esteemed and was delighted in) (see John 13:23).
After much study, I finally had to agree with the Holy
Spirit. God is not mad at us, and He is actually pleased with us
and delights in us. I believe that God is smiling over us right
now! He sees us in and through Jesus Christ. Are you ready to
acknowledge who you are in Christ and every good thing that
is yours in Him (see Phil. 1:6)?

God gave Moses words to bless the Israelites with:

The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you;
The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten
you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to
you;
The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon
you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life
continually).
Numbers 6:24–26

Don’t fail to notice the phrase “approving countenance.”

God is smiling over you!
I once had a pastor who spoke these words over the
congregation at the close of each church service. What would
happen to us if we actually believed that God is smiling at us,
that He approves of us? I believe it would add a high degree of
confidence and boldness that is actually necessary not only
for the enjoyment of life, but also in order to accomplish the
will of God. If you have the courage to begin speaking over
yourself that God is pleased and delighted in you, I can
promise you that the first few times you will feel embarrassed.
You might even blush, but you will also begin to walk with new
levels of confidence, power, peace, and joy.
As I say often—God is not pleased with all of our
behavior, but He is pleased with us if we love Him and want to
make progress. When we make positive confessions, such as I
am suggesting, we are not talking about our behavior, but we
are talking about our heart.
 Is It Dangerous to Have a Good Opinion
of Yourself?

Pride is a terrible sin, and we are instructed in God’s word not

to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. We are
told not to have an exaggerated opinion of ourselves (see Rom.
12:3). That doesn’t mean that we need to have a bad opinion of
or look down on ourselves. It does mean that we are to
remember that we are no better than anyone else and that
whatever God has enabled us to do is a gift from Him. It is
never a reason to have an exalted opinion of ourselves. We
have no more right to claim credit for a special ability we have
than we do for blue eyes or brown hair. Paul wrote to the
Corinthians and asked them what they had that did not come
as a gift from God (see 1 Cor. 4:7).
When we are warned not to think more highly of
ourselves than we ought to, it means that we are to realize that
we are nothing apart from Jesus and without Him we can do
nothing. The value we have is found in Him and we can
celebrate who we are only because of Him. Actually, when we
celebrate who we are in Jesus, it is a way of celebrating Jesus
Himself.
We make this a lot more difficult than it needs to be. It is
simple—we are everything in Jesus and nothing in ourselves. I
like to say, “I am an everything/nothing!” We celebrate
because of the amazing work God does in us, and not because
of any worth we have in ourselves. As long as we continue
giving God the glory for anything good that we manifest we are
on a safe and right track.
For some reason religion has taught people that to be
godly they must have a low, or even bad, opinion of
themselves, and I believe this kind of thinking has done
incalculable damage to the plan of God. I think that as long as
we know we are lower than God and He is always our Chief and
Head then we are safe. Consider these Scriptures:

What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of
[earthborn] man that You care for him?
Yet you have made him but a little lower than God [or
heavenly beings], and You have crowned him with glory
and honor.
You made him to have dominion over the works of
 Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.
Psalm 8:4–6

Yes, we are lower than God, but He has crowned us with

honor and glory. Do you have an honoring attitude toward
yourself or a disrespectful one? We are made in the image of
God (see Gen. 1:26) and He has given us authority over all the
other works of His hands. God wants to work in partnership
with us to accomplish His purpose on the earth, and we cannot
do that unless we maintain a proper attitude toward ourselves.
I suggest that you say out loud daily, “I am nothing without
Jesus, but in and through Him I am valuable and I can do great
things.”

I don’t think it’s dangerous to have a good opinion of

yourself (in Christ), but I do think it is dangerous not to. The
truth is that you cannot rise above what you think. We are all
limited by our own thinking. If we think small, we will live small.
And if we think big, we will live big. God wants us to realize
how big He is and He wants us to be bold enough to think big
thoughts. God did not chastise David because he thought he
could kill Goliath—He was proud of him! David knew that his
victory was in God and not in himself, but he was confident
and courageous and refused to live small.
What your life amounts to is directly connected to what
you think of yourself. We need to learn to think like God
thinks. We must learn to identify with Christ and the new
person He has made us to be. Some identify with the problems
they have had in life and call themselves by that name. They
say, “I am divorced. I am bankrupt. I am an abuse victim. I am
an alcoholic.” They should say, “I was divorced, but now I am
a new creature in Christ. I was a victim of abuse, but now I
have a new life and a new identity. I was an alcoholic, but now
I am free and I have discipline and self-control.” He has a good
plan for each of us, but we must have our minds renewed (learn
to think differently) if we ever hope to experience what Jesus
purchased with His death and resurrection.

In Scripture God uses words like “beautiful,” “honored,”

“valued,” and “precious” when He is speaking of His people.
There is no doubt that we are way less than perfect, that we
have faults and weaknesses. We make mistakes and bad
choices, and often lack wisdom, but God is God and He views
us the way He knows we can be. He sees us as a finished
project while we are making the journey. He sees the end from
the beginning and is not worried about what takes place in
between. He is not pleased with our sin and bad behavior, but
He will never give up on us and He always encourages us to
press on. God believes in you!
 Does This Kind of Talk Frighten You?

When I initially began to see these kinds of things in Scripture

I was afraid to even think this way, let alone really believe it. I
was accustomed to thinking I was a terrible wreck of a person,
a lowly worm and undeserving of anything except punishment.
My whole identity was based on what I did, and since that
wasn’t very impressive it left me with a poor opinion of myself.
I was afraid that I would offend God if I dared to have a
good thought about myself. I equated good thoughts about
myself with pride. I had heard plenty of sermons concerning
the danger of pride and was trying to be what I thought was
humble. I felt safe as long as I dared not think a good thought
about myself. As I said earlier in the book, “I did not feel right
if I did not feel wrong.”
I should also mention that the negative attitude I had
about myself was not something I was even consciously aware
of. It was just the way I lived because I did not know any
better. I can explain it now as being self-defeating, ungodly,
wrong, and tragic, but that is a result of the knowledge I now
possess of God’s word. I often ask people if they have ever
given any thought to what they think about themselves. Most
people have never thought about it at all and seem reluctant to
do so. Someone could be filled with self-depreciation, self-
hatred, self-pity, or even pride and arrogance and not know it.
We just don’t think about what we think about ourselves, but
we need to. I strongly suggest that you have a meeting with
yourself and ask yourself some pointed questions regarding
how you feel and think about yourself. You cannot deal with a
problem if you don’t know it even exists.
The devil hates books like this because they bring hidden
things into the light. Satan works in darkness, but when light
comes in and his works and lies are exposed he is easily
defeated. It is time for you to celebrate you! It is time for you to
celebrate your progress, your strengths and abilities. It is time
for you to celebrate God in your life.
 Learn to Live on the Resurrection Side
of the Cross

We must live on the resurrection side of the cross. Jesus was

crucified and raised from the dead so that we might no longer
be stuck in sin, living lowly, wretched, miserable lives. Many
people wear a necklace called a crucifix, which is an emblem of
Jesus hanging on the cross. Often we see a crucifix in a church
with Jesus hanging on it. I know it is done to remember and
honor Him and I am not against it, but the truth is that He is not
on the cross any longer. He is seated in heavenly places with
His Father and has also lifted us above the low level of
thinking and living of most of the world.
The Apostle Paul said that he was determined to know
Jesus and the power of His resurrection that would lift Him out
from among the dead (see Phil. 3:10). Jesus came to lift us out
of the ordinary, out of negative thinking, guilt, shame, and
condemnation. He came to take our sin to the cross and defeat
it. It has no power over us any longer because we are forgiven
and the penalty has been paid.
Which side of the cross are you living on: the crucifixion
side or the resurrection side? It is good and respectful to
remember that Jesus suffered a terrible death for us on the
cross, but we need to also realize that He rose from the dead
and made a new life available to us. There is a popular song
entitled “Because He Lives,” and it is about that fact that
Jesus’ death and resurrection give us the power and privilege
to live life today in victory. Because He lives we can love
ourselves in an unselfish way. A way that enables us to be all
we can be for God’s glory. The only way I know to say it is: get
a new attitude about yourself! Stop thinking that your failures
and mistakes are too much for God. He has cast all of your sins
behind His back (see Isa. 38:17). He isn’t looking at them and
you need to stop looking at them, too. Deal with them in Christ
and go on!
 Celebrate Your Life

How do you feel about your life? Do you like it, love it, and
enjoy it, or do you hate it and wish you had a different one
than you have? Do you look at other people and their lives and
wish you were them and had their lives? Do you want to look
the way they look, own what they own, have their career or
their family?
Wanting what others have is called coveting in the Bible
and it is forbidden by God. He even included it in the Ten
Commandments:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your

neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or
his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.
Exodus 20:17

You are never going to have anyone else’s life, so

wanting it is a waste of time. You won’t look like them either, so
learn to do the best you can with what you have to work with.
I have adopted a new phrase lately and it is helping me to
deal with reality and not waste my time being upset about
things I cannot do anything about. I have been saying, “It is
what it is!” Somehow, that is a reality check for me and I
quickly realize I need to deal with things the way they are, not
the way I wish they were.
Nobody has a perfect life, and it is entirely possible that if
you want someone else’s life, they are busy wanting someone
else’s too; perhaps they even want your life. Unknown people
want to be movie stars and movie stars want privacy. The
regular employee wants to be the boss and the boss wishes he
did not have so much responsibility. A single woman wants to
be married and quite often a married woman wishes she were
single. Contentment with life is not a feeling, but it is a decision
we must make. Contentment does not mean that we never want
to see change or improvement, but it does mean that we will do
the best we can with what we have. It also means that we will
maintain an attitude that allows us to enjoy the gift of life.

If we were to walk into the cancer ward of a hospital and

ask a terminally ill patient if they would take our flawed life,
they would probably be glad to do so. They probably would
not think that our problems were anything to be upset about. If
we put things in proper perspective they always look better.
Today my back hurts a little because I have been sitting in the
same position for days working on this book, but the good
news is that I can walk and I even have access to Tylenol. I
have been to places in India and Africa where something as
simple as aspirin or Tylenol would be an amazing blessing.
 The Nevertheless Principle

I once read a book that was based entirely on the word

“nevertheless.” It taught the reader to take every problem in
their life, look at it honestly, and then say, “nevertheless,” and
find some offsetting positive thing in their life that brought the
problem into perspective. It might sound something like this: “I
have a lot of hard work to get accomplished in the next two
weeks, nevertheless, after that my schedule is much more open,
and I will be able to have some fun and get some extra rest.” A
mother may be weary and say, “My son who has Attention
Deficit Disorder is driving me crazy, nevertheless, I do have a
son, and I know many people who cannot have children at all.”
A father who has to work two jobs to make ends meet might
say, “I am so tired of working all the time, nevertheless, I am
thankful that God has provided me with jobs.”
No matter who we are or what our challenge in life is, there
is always a nevertheless. Some positive thing we can look at or
talk about that brings the rest of life into perspective. Why
don’t you try it? The next time you are tempted to complain
about your life in any way, go ahead and state your complaint,
and then say, “nevertheless,” and find something positive
about your life to offset the complaint.
 Just a Few Thoughts

If you woke up this morning with more body parts that don’t
hurt than those that do, you are blessed.
If you have food, clothes, and a place to live, you are
richer than 75 percent of the world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, or spare
change at home, you are among the top 8 percent of the
world’s wealthiest people.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the
loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs
of starvation, you are ahead of five hundred million people in
the world.
If you can read this message, you are more blessed than
two billion people in the world who cannot read.
 Words Affect Moods

Something I have done to help me maintain a good attitude

about my life is to say out loud, “I love my life.” Our own
words have an effect on our moods, so it is best to say
something that will help you feel good rather than something
that will make you mad or sad. Your life is what it is and, as
they say, your attitude toward it can make or break you.
You can let staying happy be a fun challenge. See how
many days you can go without getting into a bad mood or
finding something in your life to complain about. Celebrating
life is something we should do on purpose because we
understand what a gift it is. God is life (see John 1:4), so in
reality when we celebrate life we are celebrating God! Without
Him there would be no life at all! Go ahead and try to create a
better mood by saying, “I love my life.” If you really want to
feel good try this, “I love God, I love my life, I love myself, and
I love people.”
Learn When to Stop

share in my teaching that we often study the steps of Jesus,

but fail to study the stops of Jesus. We all need to learn when
to stop. Jesus stopped what He was doing to listen to people
and to help them. He stopped to rest, to have dinner with
friends, to make wine for a wedding, and to do lots of other
simple but important things. One of my biggest problems for
many years was that I simply did not know when to stop.
My chiropractor has told me to stop every forty-five
minutes when I am writing, to get up and stretch out the
muscles in my back so I don’t end up in pain. But when I am in
a flow, it is so hard to stop! If we don’t know when to stop, we
always end up with regrets later. Last night I lay in bed with my
feet and legs aching because of my back, and it could have
been avoided had I stopped occasionally to do what my doctor
told me to do. Not knowing when to stop can cause all kinds of
pain in our life.
When Jesus visited Mary and Martha, Mary knew when
to stop, but Martha didn’t. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet so she could
not miss the moment, but Martha just kept working (see Luke
10:38–41). I wonder how many times in my life I missed the
moment because I would not stop working. I know I missed
moments with my children when they were small because I
valued work over playing with them. A good life is all about
balance. We have to know when to start and when to stop
many things. Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for everything
and that everything is beautiful in its time. Work is beautiful,
but if we work when it is time to play then work is no longer
beautiful. It can create a stress that has the ability to destroy
our health. Play is beautiful, but if we play when we should be
working, then play becomes a lack of discipline that can
destroy us.
 Stop to Laugh

It is important that we stop to laugh! The world is filled with

reports of theft, violence, dishonesty, and corruption. If we
don’t laugh I don’t how we will survive. The world does not
always give us something to laugh about, so we need to create
our own humor. Yesterday, Dave and I were driving in the car
when he saw a sign advertising a certain item, and he said, “I
bet that would cost an arm and a leg.” I decided to be funny
and said, “If you paid an arm and a leg for it you would have a
hard time getting out of the store.” He looked at me in disbelief
and said, “You must be pretty desperate for a laugh.” However,
we both did laugh for quite a while, especially me. My joke was
so unfunny that it was funny. Today we were both working out
in the exercise room when he suddenly looked at me and said,
“I can lift my leg above my head.” I quickly saw a picture of
him trying such a feat and thought, “If you lift your leg above
your head you will fall over backward.” He pressed the point
that he could do it and said “Watch me!” He then lay down flat
on his back and lifted his leg above his head and we both
began to laugh. It was out of character for Dave and rather
silly, but nonetheless it gave us both a good laugh.

I have found that life itself can be funnier than a

supposedly funny movie. Out of desperation to laugh, I have
watched comedians and funny movies, only to find that they
are not always funny and I end up disappointed that I wasted
my time. However, if we look at life in a more lighthearted way it
can be very funny. We need to lighten up! My daughters often
call me to share funny things the kids did or things they are
noticing about the children’s personalities as they are growing
up. I am glad they take the time to share those things with me.
We laugh, and then I tell Dave and he laughs, too. We could
have missed the laughter if they would have been too busy to
call or felt that it was unimportant. My daughter-in-law often
sends me pictures of the baby doing cute and funny things. He
might have a funny hat on, or some silly look on his face, but
those pictures are a laugh break for me.
I am sure that several funny things happen to you every
day if you will learn to look for them and realize how important
it is to stop for laughter.
Let’s stop to laugh:
Ever mindful of the congregation, the Baptist preacher and
his wife decided to get a new dog, and they knew that the dog
also had to be Baptist. They visited kennel after kennel and
explained their needs. Finally, they found a kennel whose
owner assured them he had just the dog they wanted. The
owner brought the dog to meet the pastor and his wife.
“Fetch the Bible,” he commanded. The dog bounded to
the bookshelf, scrutinized the books, located the Bible, and
brought it to the owner.
“Now find Psalm 23,” he commanded. The dog dropped
the Bible to the floor, and showing marvelous dexterity with his
paws, leafed through, found the correct passage, and pointed
to it with his paw.
The pastor and his wife were very impressed and
purchased the dog. That evening, a group of church members
came to visit. The pastor and his wife began to show off the
dog, having him locate several Bible verses. The visitors were
very impressed.
One man asked, “Can he do regular dog tricks, too?”
“I haven’t tried yet,” the pastor replied. He pointed his
finger at the dog. “HEEL!” the pastor commanded. The dog
immediately jumped on a chair, placed one paw on the pastor’s
forehead, and began to howl.
The pastor looked at his wife in shock and said, “Good
Lord! He’s Pentecostal!”

There was an airplane flying with four passengers. The pilot

came back and said they were going to crash, but they only
had three parachutes. He told them to decide among
themselves who was going to get them. One was a Boy Scout,
one was the smartest man in the world, one was an elderly man,
and the last was a preacher. So, the preacher told them, “You
take the parachutes because I know where I am going when I
die and I am ready to go.” The intellectual said, “Well, I have to
have a parachute because I am the smartest man in the world.”
The elderly man told the preacher and the Boy Scout to take
the two remaining parachutes because he had lived his life and
was ready to go. The Boy Scout said, “There won’t be a
problem because the smartest man in the world just jumped out
of the airplane with my backpack on.”

The husband had just finished reading the book Man of the
House. He stormed into the kitchen and walked directly up to
his wife. Pointing a finger in her face, he said, “From now on, I
want you to know that I am the man of this house, and my
word is law! I want you to prepare me a gourmet meal tonight,
and when I’m finished eating my meal, I expect a scrumptious
dessert afterward. Then, after dinner, you’re going to draw me
my bath so I can relax. And when I’m finished with my bath,
guess who’s going to dress me and comb my hair?”
His wife replied, “THE FUNERAL DIRECTOR!”

*
A child came home from Sunday School and told his mother
that he had learned a new song about a cross-eyed bear named
Gladly. It took his mother a while before she realized that the
hymn was really “Gladly the Cross I’d Bear.”

I am desperate to laugh. I wasted too much of my life being

mad and sad, and I have a lot of catching up to do. I am
committed to taking every opportunity I can find to laugh;
when I can’t find one, I am going to try to make one. I think
Jesus was playful and funny. I can imagine Him teasing His
disciples and playing pranks on them. Maybe you don’t see
Jesus this way, but you cannot prove He wasn’t this way so
don’t try to rain on my parade. I know that He was serious and
sober minded, but He was always in perfect balance so He had
to have humor, too.
If we look at the twelve men Jesus chose for disciples, it’s
clear that He had to have a sense of humor. They were
emotional and competitive. They frequently doubted and were
filled with reasoning that was often humorous in itself. Peter
said some fairly ridiculous things to Jesus during their journey
together, but Jesus chose him, and the rest of His disciples. His
choices were not mistakes; they were chosen on purpose.
Surely, Jesus wanted us to see from the choices He made that
He takes us as we are and is not at all bothered by our faults.
They did have many flaws; nevertheless, when Jesus called,
they followed.
I am sure the three years they trained with Jesus were
intense, but they were balanced with humor and rest.
 Try to Keep Up with Children

Research shows that adults laugh approximately twenty-five

times a day. Actually, I think twenty-five sounds high for most
of the adults I know and am around. It is 3:00 PM where I am at
right now, and I think I may have laughed five times so far
today—but I promise to try to meet my quota before bedtime.

Jesus told us to become like little children. They can have

fun in just about any kind of situation and they never fail to
stop and laugh. According to statistics they laugh on average
of four hundred times a day! I just spent five days with my
one-year-old grandson, Travis, and I laughed more in those
five days than I normally do in two months. He has learned to
laugh out loud and so he does it for no reason at all. He just
suddenly laughs out loud and then, when we laugh at him
laughing, he laughs again and again. He does it as long as we
will keep the game going. He discovered how to open my
glasses case and starting putting his baby spoon in it. Each
time he got it open he laughed. When we clap for his progress,
he claps for himself and laughs again. I can assure you that he
is not worried, anxious, or thinking about all of his mistakes in
life. No wonder Jesus told us to become like little children if we
wanted to enter and enjoy His kingdom.
 Stop to Rest

Resting is very important and most of us need to do it a lot

more often than we do. Whatever happened to recess? When
we were children in school we had morning recess, lunch, and
afternoon recess. These were all times to eat and/or play and
they were within a six-or seven-hour period of time. Suddenly
when high school started, recess disappeared! Did we stop
needing it because we became teenagers? The older we get, it
seems, the less recess we get. But perhaps it should be the
other way around. I have worked really hard since I was about
thirteen years old and I am becoming fonder of recess every
day. Recess is simply a break in normal business that allows us
time to rest and relax.
I am going to take a short recess and I will be right back!
Ten minutes later: I am back and I feel much better!
Before I took my ten-minute break, I had to go to the
bathroom, was thirsty, hungry, and stiff. I solved all of those
issues in ten minutes and now I feel refreshed. When you start
feeling exhausted, when you hear yourself sighing frequently,
when your muscles are tense, and when your creativity has
been reduced to zero, it is time to stop! We usually feel that we
must press on because the job has to be finished, but the truth
is that a short break makes us better in every way. It also
enables us to enjoy what we are doing instead of resenting it.
We must learn to control our workload and never let it control
us.
 Take a break when you need one, because you are worth
it. Give yourself permission to rest! You are a human being, not
a human doing. I promise that it is OK to rest! We all have
limits and it is foolish not to admit them. Some days my tank is
not as full as other days and I have stopped trying to figure
out why. I just stop before I am totally running on empty and
sucking dirt into my carburetor. My dad was an automobile
mechanic and he always said, “Never let your gas tank get
empty because you will suck dirt into your carburetor.” If he
found my gas tank close to empty he got upset, so I was
careful to keep my tank at least half full. I wish I would have
followed that advice with my life energy. If I had, I might have
avoided some illness and laughed a lot more, and I am sure I
would have accomplished just as much but enjoyed it more.
Most mistakes we make in life we cannot go back and
undo, but we can learn from them and hopefully prevent
someone else from making the same mistakes we did. So my
advice to you from experience is: add more recesses into your
life.
 Take More Vacations

If I say, “Take more vacations,” you might think that you

would if you had more time off work or more money. But the
truth is we can take vacations without money and we can take
the time we do have and use it more wisely.
Try taking half days off, but don’t use them to run
errands, unless, of course, they are fun ones. If you can take
vacation in one-hour increments, try taking two hours off to go
to lunch with a good friend or relative you enjoy. When you do
take time off, refer to it as vacation, not time off. The word
“vacation” has a nice feeling and a good emotional effect.
I think we actually hesitate to say that we are on vacation
too often because we don’t want people to think we don’t work
hard enough. When someone finds out that I am taking some
time off they usually say, “Oh, are you going on vacation?”
and I often feel that I need to justify it by saying, “Yes, but I
will be doing some work, too.” I think I justified my existence
on earth by working for so long that I still need to read my own
books and take my own advice when it comes to the subject of
vacation.
I recently spent some time with a friend who is an attorney
and as I shared with him the things in this book, he told me that
he had taken three days of vacation and also felt the need to
justify taking time off. A co-worker had called him and asked
what he was doing while he was off work. He responded that
he was going to play some golf, but that he would be doing
business by phone and e-mail. We should be able to take time
off without working and not feel guilty. We don’t have to
always be working in some way to justify our existence on
earth.
Whenever possible, it’s a good idea to take one or two
vacations each year consisting of a week or more because it
usually takes us a couple of days to actually gear down and
unwind enough to reach the level of real rest. In the meantime,
take the day, half-day, two-hour, and ten-minute vacations that
are important to make life more balanced. Use holidays to rest
and do things that will refresh you, and be sure to be with
people who will make you laugh. The next chapter of this book
is dedicated to giving your soul a vacation, so get ready for
more celebration!
Give Your Soul a Vacation

he subject of vacation is an important one, but our physical

body is not the only part of us that needs vacation. Our souls
need a vacation, too. Have you ever given your soul a
vacation?
Your soul is comprised of your mind, will, and emotions,
and it is a very important part of your entire being. You are a
spiritual being and you live in a physical body. But if you don’t
understand your soul and the needs that it has, you will not be
a whole, healthy individual.
You can take a vacation, thinking that you need a physical
rest, but if you don’t let your soul rest at the same time, you
will return home just as exhausted as you were when you left.
We can lie on the beach and worry, but that does not equal a
vacation. We can take a day off and spend it emotionally upset
trying to deal with personal problems, traffic, high prices, and
rude people, and we would have been better off staying at
work.
 It is vitally important that we learn how to let our souls
rest. Jesus said that if we are overburdened, weary, and worn
out that we should come to Him and learn how He handled life.
He said that He would give us rest for our souls. In the
Amplified Translation of the Bible it says the type of rest He is
talking about is recreation, refreshment, and blessed quiet for
our souls. I pondered His statement and realized that Jesus was
offering us a vacation for our souls (our inner lives). He offers
us rest for our mind, wills, and emotions if we will come to Him
and learn how He handles life.

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and
overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and
relieve and refresh your souls.]
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am
gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will
find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation
and blessed quiet) for your souls,
For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh,
hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and
pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.
Matthew 11:28–30
 The Cure for Stress

God’s answer to weariness is found in His word. He invites us

to study how He lived and learn from His example the best way
to handle situations in life. All people grow weary at times.
Watchman Nee, a wonderful Chinese minister, said, “The world
is indeed a wearisome place.” When we are weary we are
exhausted in strength, endurance, vigor, or freshness and we
are out of patience and tolerance. Our pleasure in life has been
exhausted and we need help. We need to be refreshed not only
physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. Being weary
is not something to be ashamed of, but it is simply a sign that
we need some help or a break.

The principle I have shared so far of taking time to reward

yourself on a regular basis will help you avoid a great deal of
weariness. Those little pleasures in life such as a cookie, a pair
of shoes, a nap, a walk in the park, a lunch with a friend, a
manicure, a bubble bath, or a golf game actually help us more
mentally and emotionally than they do physically. When our
souls are rested, then our physical strength also increases. Do
not fail to take the time to do these little things for yourself
because they will help you immensely. But, the first thing we
need to do when we feel weary is simply “come to Jesus.”
Being in His Presence gives us rest and it also provides us with
creative ideas on practical ways we can be restored.
Moses had grown weary as he attempted to lead the
Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land and God’s word to
him was to let others help him (see Exodus 18:18). Sometimes
we just need to admit that we need help and that we cannot do
everything ourselves. Being needy is not something I was
good at in my life and I have had to learn that asking for help is
not a sign of weakness, but rather it is wise.

Moses was wearing himself out because he tried to do

everything the people wanted him to do and, to be honest, we
just cannot keep all of the people happy all of the time and not
be worn out ourselves.
God surely knew that we would all need help because He
sent us His Holy Spirit, Who is referred to as “The Helper.” Go
ahead and say it: “I NEED HELP!” Asking is the first rule to
receiving, so don’t be too prideful to ask for help.
Isaiah said that all people grow weary at times. No matter
what our age is or how naturally strong we are, we all have
limits and that is OK. It is OK if you cannot do it all. In fact,
you can’t do it all. Isaiah’s instruction was to wait upon the
Lord and be refreshed and renewed (see Isa. 40:28–31). Daniel
said that Satan actually seeks to wear out the saints of God.
We need to remember that: the devil wants us weary, worn out,
and exhausted. He will push us until we have no strength left if
we are not careful, because he knows that if we are exhausted
we will think, say, and do foolish things; we won’t enjoy life
and our witness to others will not be good.
All of the great men and women of God talked about being
weary and how to recover once they became so. We can learn
a great lesson from the Prophet Elijah.
 Take a Break and Eat a Cake

Elijah was perhaps the greatest prophet in the Bible. God used
him to do amazing things and yet we see the human side of
Elijah. Elijah (with God’s help) made fools of and slaughtered
450 prophets of the heathen idol Baal. They had no machine
guns or bombs in Elijah’s day, so I suppose he killed them with
a sword. Just imagine how tired a person would be if they had a
day like Elijah did. Not only did he kill 450 people but he also
built an altar, dug a trench, cut a bull in pieces for a sacrifice,
got four large jars of water from the well or brook, and repeated
this process several times (see 1 Kings 18:21–40). After that he
climbed Mount Carmel to pray for rain while his servant looked
for rain clouds as an answer to Elijah’s prayer to end a three
years’ drought. When his servant reported that he saw a tiny
cloud the size of a man’s hand, Elijah told King Ahab (Jezebel’s
husband) to hitch up his chariot and flee because it was about
to rain. Then, after the exhausting day Elijah had already had,
the Bible says that “he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab
to the entrance of Jezreel [nearly twenty miles] (1 Kings 18:46).
He was most assuredly exhausted beyond anything I can
imagine when this process was over.
The next day he heard a report that Jezebel had made a
vow to kill him the same way he had killed her prophets.
Elijah’s reaction was that of an exhausted, weary man. He ran
into the desert to hide, and he isolated himself from his
servants and friends because he was discouraged and
depressed. He sat alone in the desert and asked God to take his
life (see 1 Kings 19:1–4). Exhaustion can change our
personality and make us do things and behave in ways that
would not be normal for us. Elijah was normally not afraid of
anything. He was very bold. Bold enough to confront and slay
450 of Jezebel’s prophets, but now we see him only one day
later behaving quite differently. I don’t know about you, but I
can relate to having days like the one Elijah was having. I have
been so tired that exhaustion altered my personality; I have
been filled with self-pity and negative thoughts, and I have
wanted to isolate myself and have everyone just leave me
alone.
Elijah obviously needed help, so God sent an angel to
help him, who told him to arise and eat. The angel provided a
cake and a bottle of water and told him to eat, drink, and lie
down and go to sleep (see 1 Kings 19:5–6). The angel repeated
the process again and after that Elijah had strength to go for
forty days. Wow! God’s answer to the great prophet’s
exhaustion, weariness, and desperation was “Take a break
and eat a cake.” It was equivalent to “Eat a cookie and buy
the shoes.” I think this is amazing and thrilling because it lets
us know that the answer to some of the most difficult times in
life is to get some rest, eat something we enjoy, do something
we enjoy, take a nap, and keep repeating the process until we
feel we can go again.
The multi-billion-dollar stress business might go broke if
we all took God’s advice on how to cure stress. Perhaps people
don’t need so many doctor visits, prescriptions, counselors,
and treatment centers. Perhaps they just need a vacation for
their soul.
I realize that people have serious problems and
devastating losses in their lives. I also know that the simple
things I am talking about are not the ultimate answer for every
situation, but they are the cure for much of the stress that
people experience today. Everyone gets weary unless they
know how to prevent it, or how to recover.
 The Rest of God

In Matthew 11:28–29, Jesus speaks of rest two times. One is

the rest of salvation and the other is the rest we need for daily
life. The invitation to come to Him and find rest (v. 28) is in
reference to receiving salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
When we do that, we find an immediate type of rest that is one
we have not experienced previously. We have the rest of
knowing that our sins are forgiven and that we are loved and
accepted by God. We also have the rest of no longer being
afraid of death, because we know that when we die, we will
simply pass from this earthly realm into the heavenly realm
where we will live eternally in God’s Presence.
This first rest is wonderful, but we also need a second rest
and Jesus tells us how to have that when He says, “Take My
yoke upon you and learn of Me… and you will find rest (relief
and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for
your souls” (v. 29). A yoke is a device that is used to couple
two things together, such as the pairing of oxen that were used
to pull a plow for farming. It is used metaphorically in the Bible
as a reference to submission to authority. It also refers to
balancing out a load. 1 If we stay yoked (very close) to Jesus
and submit to His authority He will help us balance out our
load in life and we will learn how He responds to every
situation.
To live a balanced Christian life where the load is not too
heavy for us, we must be willing to take up Jesus’ yoke in the
small things of each day as well as in the big things of life.
Some workers find it hard to labor with their fellow workers;
some husbands or wives find it hard to endure their in-laws;
some employees find it difficult to deal with their boss;
students become weary of their relationship with teachers and
other students. All of these are things we must bear in life and,
of course, we get tired of them. We wish that we could get
away from them, or find a way to get them away from us. We
may feel cast down, discouraged, depressed, and have no
peace, but we must learn that Jesus wants us to be yoked to
Him and realize that these things are things we must learn to
bear with a good attitude because they are God’s portion
appointed to us.
God puts different people together and wants us to learn
how to love one another and get along peacefully. God may
put a careful, tidy person with a careless, messy person. He
may put a strong person with a weak one, a healthy one with a
sick one, or a clever person with one who is not so clever. He
puts hot-tempered, impatient people together with sweet-
tempered and patient people. One of them becomes yoked to
the other and God uses them to balance one another out. This
gives us the opportunity to learn the nature of Christ, and if we
struggle against it, we will have no rest. But, if we say to God,
“I am willing to take my place; I am willing to obey; I am willing
to bloom where I am planted,” then we will find rest and joy.
It took me many years to learn that it was useless to try to
change something that God had assigned to me as a yoke to
bear in life. I had to submit to His will and let Him teach me to
be peaceful in the situation. In his book Balanced Christian
Life, Watchmen Nee said, “The highest life we can live is to
welcome all that we may naturally dislike. Let me tell you that
you will be filled with the deepest rest within if you will joyfully
accept the yoke which God gives you.” 2
God’s rest has been available since the seventh day of
creation, when God Himself rested. Many things are available
today that people fail to enjoy because they are either ignorant
of them or because they fail to believe and obey.
 Spiritual Rest

Although we need physical rest, the type of rest spoken of in

Matthew 11 is spiritual rest. It is a rest of the spirit and soul
(mind, will, emotions). It is a rest in work, not from work. When
we rest physically, we need to stop working. But this type of
rest is different. When Jesus came to Mary and Martha’s, he
did not chastise Martha for working, but for worrying. He told
her that she was anxious and troubled about many things, but
that right at that moment, only one thing was needful and that
was for her to enjoy His visit. She was concerned about how
things looked and was upset that Mary wasn’t helping her (see
Luke 10:38–41). Martha needed to give herself permission to
lighten up! All the things she worried about were not things
worth worrying about. The house being perfect wasn’t that
important, and what Mary was doing was none of Martha’s
business. She needed to relax and enjoy the miracle of the
moment. Jesus had come to her house, and even though she
probably needed to make some preparations, she did not need
to lose her peace.
Rest is not inactivity, but the harmonious working
together of all the faculties and affection—of will, heart,
imagination, and conscience. For example, if a person makes a
choice to do something that their conscience does not agree
with, they will not enjoy the rest of God. Someone just asked
me to do something as a favor to them that I did not have
peace about doing. If I please my friend by doing what they
want me to do then I will not have rest because in my heart I
don’t really feel it is a right thing for me to do. My actions,
heart, mind, and conscience need to work together in harmony.
Martha needed to learn to rest while she worked. Martha
worked, but in her imagination and thoughts she was angry
with Mary because she was not also working and that
prevented Martha from being at rest internally while she
worked outwardly.
If the emotions, heart, will, or mind is set against the thing
being done, there will be no rest. Martha was working, but she
resented it so she could not rest. When we have a job to do we
should do it willingly, not with resentment. It is vital for us to
use our free will and choose the will of God when a thing needs
to be done. We say in our heart, “I will do this as a service to
God and I will do it with a good attitude.”
This is exactly what Jesus did in the Garden of
Gethsemane. He knew a job had to be done and that God
wanted Him to do it. He prayed about it and even though He
was aware that it was going to include unimaginable suffering,
He set His will in agreement with His Father’s will. He endured
the pain and suffering for the joy of the prize that was set
before Him. Once He made His decision God sent angels to
minister Him. If our attitude is proper we will receive divine help
enabling us to do what we need to do.
 Change Your Approach to Life

Life will not always change, so we must be willing to change.

Ask yourself how you approach each day and situation. Do
you have an idea of what you want to take place? Have you
already decided that you cannot have rest or joy if you don’t
get what you want? I hear people say things like, “If it rains
tomorrow I am not going to be happy,” or, “When I get home
from work today I am going to be upset if my children did not
clean the house the way I told them to.” When we think like
this, we are preparing to be upset and lose our rest before we
even have a problem. We have made our mind up that we
cannot have rest if we don’t have our way. We should say
instead, “I hope the weather is nice tomorrow, but my joy is
within me so I can be happy and have rest in my soul no matter
what kind of weather we have.” We should think, “I hope the
children did what I asked them to do so I don’t have to correct
them, but I can handle any situation and remain peaceful in my
soul.”

Do you approach life with a negative, complaining

attitude, or with a positive, grateful attitude? Do you take time
in life to reward yourself for your progress, or do you punish
yourself for your weaknesses and mistakes? Do you hurry all
the time or take the day one thing at a time, asking for the help
of the Holy Spirit? Do you live in the now (present moment) or
do you live in yesterday and tomorrow in your thinking? How
we approach life makes all the difference in our quality of life,
so when we can’t fix life, let us remember that we can fix our
approach to life. Make your mind up that you will be happy if
you get your way and you will be happy if you don’t.

We all have endless examples in our life of changing our

approach. Dave and I stay in hotels a lot and often find that the
bathtub has no stopper to keep the tub filled. I enjoy a bath
rather than a shower, so after getting upset numerous times
over the lack of a stopper, I decided to carry one with me. It
takes up very little space and keeps me in rest. Most hotels
don’t have very good lighting. I imagine it is because they are
trying to save money, but the fact is that most guests don’t
enjoy being in a dark room. After complaining for years, we
now call ahead and ask the hotel for several additional lamps
for our room. If the bulbs are not a high enough wattage to put
out sufficient light, we go buy brighter light bulbs. Once you
get committed to living in rest and peace you will find ways to
approach life differently.
Last year we were traveling to Thailand and India and
were stranded in Alaska due to airplane maintenance. I
expected to leave St. Louis where it was very cold and end up
in Thailand where it was hot, so I left home wearing sandals
and didn’t take a coat. When we got off the plane in Alaska it
was thirteen degrees below zero and the wind was blowing
really hard. My daughter-in-law gave me a pair of bright pink
socks to put on with sandals (stop and use your imagination);
needless to say, they looked ridiculous. I bought a purple fuzzy
sweatshirt in the hotel gift shop which I knew I would never
wear again and did not want to spend money on, but it was all I
could find. So with my hair sticking up because I had been
sleeping on the plane, my summer outfit, my pink socks and
purple fuzzy sweatshirt, I walked across the hotel lobby quite
sure that nobody in Alaska, especially in the middle of the
night, would recognize me. But our thoughts are not always
God’s thoughts, and sure enough the bellman said loudly,
“Aren’t you Joyce Meyer from television?” Immediately, a few
other hotel employees who watch my program came running
over, and so we had a small “meet and greet” in Alaska in the
middle of the night, with crazy hair, pink socks and sandals,
and a purple fuzzy sweatshirt.
I did not want to be in Alaska, and I did not want to run
around in the ridiculous outfit I had on, but I only had two
choices. I could be upset and lose my rest, which would not
change a thing, or I could decide to make an adventure out of
it. I chose the adventure and things worked out all right. We
can change our quality of life by changing our attitude toward
the small and big things that usually irritate and anger us.
 Escaping Trouble Is Not the Answer

David prayed that he could fly away from trouble and be at rest
(see Ps. 55:5–8), but running from trouble is not the answer.
We must face the enemy and defeat him in God’s power just as
David defeated Goliath. God has given us “going through”
power. He has given us a spirit not of fear, but of a calm, well-
balanced, disciplined mind (see 2 Tim. 1:7). It is not God’s will
for us to run or hide from challenges, but to confront them
head-on, knowing we can fight a battle and remain at rest. After
all, the battle is not ours, but God’s!
God never blesses people who run. Wherever they are
hiding, He finds them and takes them back to what they ran
from so they can face it and experience true freedom. God gives
us power and wisdom to deal with situations, not to try to
escape them. Avoidance is not a godly character trait.
Elijah tried to run and hide, but God made him go back to
the place he ran from and continue the work he had been called
to do. After God gave him a cake and a break, He confronted
him about his attitude. He asked why he was hiding and what
he thought he was doing. Elijah answered out of a bitter
attitude and distorted thinking. He said that he alone was left
to serve God and people were seeking to kill him. He told God
that all the Israelites had forsaken His covenant, destroyed His
altars and killed His prophets, and once again Elijah sounded
as if he was filled with self-pity as He told God that only he was
left being faithful (see 1 Kings 19:9–14). God told Elijah that He
had seven thousand prophets left that had not bowed their
knee to Baal and He also told him to get back to work. When
we don’t stay in rest our thinking gets distorted and we lose
proper perspective. We want to run away from responsibility,
but as we can see with Elijah, God will not allow us to do that
because escape is never the answer to life’s challenges.
 Prayer Precedes Rest

Our first line of defense against discouragement or

disappointment is prayer. Pray at the beginning of each day,
each project, every trial and disappointment. Don’t merely pray
for the situation to go away, but instead pray that you will be
able to handle the problem, maintain the character of God, and
display the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Prayer invites the power of
God into our situations. You may recall that earlier in this book
we talked about the importance of having revelation
concerning the power of God that is available to us who
believe. This power can be released through believing prayer.
We are told not to be anxious about anything, but in
everything we are to pray and give thanks (see Phil. 4:6). It is
foolish and a waste of energy and time to try to do anything
before praying. Pray at all times, in every season, with every
manner of prayer (see Eph. 6:18). We forfeit more than we can
imagine because we often fail to pray.
We will have no rest until we learn to stay calm in every
situation (see Ps. 94:12–13). The most foolish thing in the world
is to try to do something about something you cannot do
anything about. When you are weary and overburdened come
to Jesus and find rest. Take His yoke upon you and learn how
He handles life, and you will find rest, relief, ease, refreshment,
recreation, and blessed quiet for your souls. That sounds like a
vacation to me! Do you need a vacation for your soul? If you
do, one is being offered to you through learning how to rest
your mind, will, and emotions, as well as your physical body.
Priorities

hen our priorities are out of order it always creates stress. We

need order in our homes, schedules, closets, garages, finances,
and everything else in life. God is not the God of confusion! He
runs a very orderly universe. There is no chaos in Heaven! God
tells us to live in the peace that He left for us, so there must be
a way to do it. We have many priorities in life that need
attention, but in this book I want to discuss spiritual
priorities.
 Sit, Stand, Walk, and Run

We find all of these words in Scripture. We are told that we are

seated in Christ and that refers to us entering the rest of God.
We are taught to stand against the devil and all evil. We are to
walk in God, walk in love, walk in righteousness, and walk by
faith. We are also told to run our race, run to win, and run and
not be weary.
We are told to sit, stand, walk, and run, but many
Christians try to run without ever having learned and practiced
the other steps. These spiritual principles have a proper
priority and must be established in our lives in that order.
Babies do not jump out of their cribs and begin running around
the house. They work a long time at learning to sit with pillows
propped around them or with the help of an adult, and after
much training and practice they finally learn to sit alone.

Some Christians can only stay in rest (seated) if they have

other Christians continually propping them up, praying for
them, and encouraging them to do so, but we must grow to the
place where the rest of God is our normal state and not
something we must try to attain. We must learn to sit alone
without needing the constant support of others before we can
start walking.
I tried to run before I learned to sit and it was disastrous. I
felt that I was called to teach other people the word of God so I
quickly started a ministry. But I experienced unbelievable
stress—so much stress that I was sick and unhappy most of
the time. I was trying to run, but I had never learned to sit,
stand, or walk yet. Now after more than thirty-three years in
ministry I am running fast. I am in the spiritual fast lane,
hopefully helping millions of people through the teaching
ministry God has given me. I know how to run with God, but I
also now know how to sit, stand, and walk in God, and I can do
them all simultaneously.
 Seated in Christ

The Bible always depicts Christ as being seated after His

death, resurrection, and ascension. It says that He ascended
on high and sat down at the right hand of Majesty, there to
wait for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet (see
Heb. 10:11–13). In other words, Jesus not only did what He was
sent to do in rest, but He then entered another dimension of
the rest of God to wait for God to do the remainder of what
needed to be done. I like to say, “Do your best and God will do
the rest.”
We must learn to do what is assigned to us from God and
never waste time trying to do what only God can do. We
cannot go beyond what God has given us grace to do. I can
want to change. I can study God’s word in areas where I need
growth, I can pray about change, but only God can change me.
I can do what I can do, but I cannot do what only God can do.
Until I learned the difference I lived in stress. I can want a
loved one or a friend to live a better life, to be closer to God, or
to stop destructive habits. I can pray for them and I can offer
help if they will take it, but only God can change them. Saying
that we trust God is not hard to do, but true faith enters the rest
of God. We do not enter God’s rest when we are trying to
believe, we enter it when we have believed (see Heb. 4:3, 10).
As we talk about rest remember that it is equivalent to being
seated! Have you learned how to sit?
Even God rested from His labors of creation and took time
to enjoy what He had done. He did what He purposed to do
and then He rested. Jesus did what He was sent by God to do
and then He rested. Our biggest problem is often that we don’t
know when we should be finished. When we labor in the flesh
without God’s help then we have no rest; all we have is
frustration and stress.
Each day we have certain purposes that we wish to
accomplish and at the end of the day it is proper to rest, not
only physically, but our soul also needs a rest. We need rest
physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
We are spiritually seated with Christ in Heaven. Our feet
may be on earth, but spiritually we are with Christ in Heaven.
Christians live in two realms at the same time. A. W. Tozer said
it well: “Our trouble springs from the fact that we who follow
Christ inhabit at once two worlds: the spiritual and the natural.
As children of Adam, we live our lives on earth subject to the
limitations of the flesh and the weaknesses and ills to which
human nature is heir. Merely to live among men requires of us
years of hard toil and much care and attention to the things of
this world. In sharp contrast to this is our life in the Spirit.
There we enjoy another and higher kind of life.” 1 There we can
enjoy the rest of God no matter what is taking place in the
natural realm.
Our circumstances on earth don’t have to disturb us
spiritually if we learn how to stay seated. As believers in Jesus
Christ we have had a co-death and co-resurrection with Christ.
The Bible says, “We know that our old (unrenewed) self was
nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is
the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive
for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin” (Rom.
6:6).
We are also told in Scripture that “He raised us up
together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us
joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our
being] in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). We must learn to identify
with Christ and to believe that what He has right now, we also
have through our faith in Him. We will not get it at some later
date, we have it now (spiritually speaking)! God not only
allowed Jesus to shed His blood for the remission of our sins,
but He has also put us in Christ so that when the Lord Jesus
was crucified God crucified our old man with Him, too. That we
were crucified with Christ is a fact in God, but it is impossible
for the human mind to explain this fact. That is why we must
believe with the heart, rather than trying to reason things out
with the mind.
Let us understand that whatever God has done in the past
in Christ is always now for us. God is the God Who is forever
now. He is the great “I am!” All the facts in Christ are now and
they never pass away, they are forever. The cross of Christ is
now, the resurrection of Christ is now, the ascension of Christ
is now, the coming of the Holy Spirit is now, and the filling of
the Holy Spirit is now. We are seated with Christ now. We
must not treat what Christ has done as mere history, but thanks
to God all that He has done is forever and it is ours now!
Faith allows us to rest mentally and emotionally. Even our
will gets a rest when we have faith in God. We don’t worry or
reason, we are not upset or downcast, and we are not trying to
make something happen that is not God’s will—we are at rest!
Paul was singing in jail. Jesus was praying for others while
being crucified. Joseph decided that if he was going to be a
slave, he would be the best slave his owner ever had. He
decided that if he was going to be a prisoner (even though he
did not commit a crime) that he would be a prisoner with a good
attitude.
We need to be honest about what the real cause of our
stress is. Is it really our circumstances in life, or is it the way we
respond to the circumstances? There is a rest available and we
must strive to enter it. Entering the rest of God should be our
number one priority after receiving Jesus as our Savior. I ask
you again: have you learned to sit and enter God’s rest?
 Learning to Stand in Christ

We can never stand against the enemy (Satan) unless we learn

to do it from our first position of being seated in Christ. Rest is
a place of power!

And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your
feet.
Romans 16:20a

If we stay calm, God will deliver us. We may say that we

are trusting God, but there is no evidence of trust unless we
stay seated in Christ.
The Israelites were seriously stressed due to their
seemingly impossible situation of being literally between the
Red Sea and the Egyptian army! They had no natural way of
escape. Yet God told them to hold their peace, remain at rest,
and He would fight for them (see Exod. 14:9–14).
Standing is a position of knowing the end from the
beginning. We know the word of God and what He has
promised, and we choose to believe it more than what we see,
feel, or think. We stand firm in our faith knowing spiritually we
are delivered and expecting to see the manifestation of it at any
moment. We wait expectantly! We will get weary at times
because we usually have to wait longer than we thought we
would, but Jesus has said that if we will come to Him any time
we feel even slightly weary, He will give us rest. He will give
what equates to a spiritual vacation or a vacation for our soul.
 Learning to Walk

A walk is made up of many steps, and each one is a choice. Our

walk with God refers to how we live our daily life. Once we
have learned to sit and stand, we are ready to start taking steps
that will eventually enable us to walk. We are not walking with
God simply because we attend church or read our Bible. Our
walk is about our choices. The Bible says that we should walk
(order our lives, conduct, and conversation) in the revealed will
of God (see Ps. 119:1). It says that we should walk (order our
lives) by what we know to be true (see Phil. 3:16). Knowing
truth gives us a responsibility to act upon it. I recently watched
a tragic situation unfold as a brother in Christ became
entangled in an affair with another woman even though he was
married and had two children. The sin of the affair opened him
up to all kinds of deception and his situation went from bad to
worse as he told many lies and got himself deeper and deeper
in trouble. His family was destroyed and he ended up in jail.
God used that situation to show me that the more knowledge
we have of God and His will the more responsible we are to
obey it. When one who truly knows better shows no
reverential fear of God and arrogantly chooses sin, he opens a
door in his life that allows the army of hell to march in.
Knowing is not enough; we must do and the doing is called
our walk with God. We can be in church services ten times a
month and still not walk with God. We must walk in obedience.
We are told many times in the Bible to walk in love. Love
is merely a word or theory unless it controls actions toward
other people. Love can be very mystical unless we understand
that at the very foundation of love is daily concern for doing
what will benefit others. What will make their lives better and
help them?
We are to walk by faith. We live and regulate our lives by
our conviction about our relationship with God (see 2 Cor. 5:7).
Every action, emotion, and thought becomes subservient to
what we believe about God. Enoch walked with God and had
continual fellowship with Him, and the Bible says that “he was
not, for God took him [home with Him]” (Gen. 5:24). It sounds
as if Enoch got so close to God that the world could no longer
hold him; he slipped over into the spiritual realm and simply
disappeared. The Bible does not say that Enoch died and went
to Heaven. It says that he walked so closely with God that he
simply was no longer here. Noah walked with God (see Gen.
6:9), Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob walked with God (see Gen.
48:15). They made their personal relationships with God a
priority. They sat in God (remained at rest), they stood against
their enemies, and they walked with God. They also ran their
race and are recorded in the Bible as men of whom the world
was not worthy. They made choices and formed habits that
they walked in day after day and year after year. We see from
the beginning of time men walked with God.
Walking a long way is not difficult if you know when to sit
down awhile and rest. Sometimes your walk is hindered and
you need to stand a bit in one place, yet all the while you are
making progress. Habakkuk said that when nothing is working
right in our circumstances that we can rejoice because God is
our Strength, our personal bravery, and our invincible army; He
causes us to walk (not stand still in terror, but to walk) and
make (spiritual) progress on the high places of trouble,
suffering, and responsibility (see Hab. 3:17–19).

We are instructed to walk in the fear of God, walk as Christ

walked, walk worthy of the Divine calling, walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, and walk through the fire, the
flood, and the storm. Walk in integrity, walk in righteousness,
walk in liberty, walk as children of light, and don’t walk after
the flesh. We can see that walking is a full-time job, so it is no
wonder that we must first learn to sit and stand. I am fairly
certain that if I make a commitment to walk in all of these areas
as God asks me to do, I will occasionally need a vacation for
my soul!
 Let’s Go for a Run

My daughter quite often says to me, “I am going to go for a

run today.” In the last two years she has become a runner, but
she started walking fast and doing a little light jogging long
before her trainer let her run. She didn’t just decide to run and
start running—it doesn’t work that way. I tried that method
many times and each time I hurt either my feet or my back. My
chiropractor finally told me that I was too old to start running
now. He may be right about running physically, but I can still
run spiritually. However, the same principle of preparation
applies in the spiritual realm that applies in the natural realm.
If you have learned to sit, stand, and walk in God, it is time
to start running in and with God. David said that he would not
merely walk, but run in the ways of God (see Ps. 119:32). Are
you ready to run your race with steady, active persistence?
Are you ready to be patient and persevere until you reach your
goal?

Runners in Paul’s day stripped down to a loincloth to

prepare for the race. Are you ready to strip off anything that is
hindering your run with God? Their bodies were oiled
(anointed) for the race. We must live with God in such a way
that He can anoint us for service in His kingdom. Runners must
be disciplined and focused if they intend to win the race.
Deciding to run is a big decision and being successful at it
requires a huge commitment.
Are your spiritual priorities in order? If not, this is a good
time to make some decisions. God has a race for you to run and
His plan is for you to win, but you will have to learn to sit,
stand, and walk. You can only win your race if you know how
to run with your soul on vacation.
My All in All

he tiny word all is used 5,675 times in the Bible, give or take a
few depending on what translation you are looking at. It is a
small word that means a great deal, and yet we pay so little
attention to it. If we read a Scripture that has the word all in it
and ignore the all, it changes the entire context of the
Scripture. The word all takes us into infinity. Where does all
stop? How far does it go and what does it include?
Jesus is the Lord of All. Our Al-mighty God, all-sufficient
Savior, all blessings flow from Him, and He is all that we need.
We frequently say that God is our all, but have we ever
stopped to truly understand the impact of that one little word?
All leaves nothing outside of God’s control. As long as we
believe that some things are out of God’s control we cannot
have a proper soul vacation because there will be something
for us to worry about, try to figure out, be upset about, or try
to control and change. We will not live life as something to be
celebrated because it will keep us worn out all the time. We will
probably be intense and unable to relax.
 God Knows All Things

God knows all things (see John 21:17)! Don’t miss the “all” of
that statement. He knows the end from the beginning so He
must know everything in the middle. He also has all power, all
authority; all things are under His feet, and He fills everything
everywhere with Himself (see Matt. 28:18 and Eph. 1:21–23). He
sees all, hears all, and is everywhere all the time. If these things
are true, then why do we still worry and become anxious? Why
do we get emotionally upset when we have a problem or things
are not going our way? It must be because we truly don’t
believe that He has all power, knows all things, and loves us
with all of the love that exists in the universe.
How many of our sins does He forgive? Does He forgive
some, most, or all? The Bible says that He forgives them all and
continually cleanses us from all unrighteousness. It is one
those all and forever-now things. When Jesus died on the
cross sin was dealt with once and for all, according to
Hebrews, and the cleansing goes on continually; it is without
interruption and for all time (see 1 John 1:9 and Ps. 103:1–3).
God did not put our sins off to the side so He could glance
over at them occasionally; they are not in front of Him enabling
Him to see them continually; nor did He store them in a box
somewhere so He could get them out if need be and remind us
of them. He did not cover them up, nor sweep them under a
rug, but He has removed them completely (see Ps. 103:12). He
has cast all of our sins behind His back (see Isa. 38:17). He is
not looking at them and He does not want us to look at them,
either.
We don’t need to pay for them because that has been
taken care of as well. All of our sins have been completely
forgiven and there is no longer any sacrifice we need to make.
Go back and read that again, please. Did you see the “all” and
the “have been”? They have been (not will be) all (not some)
forgiven! Jesus atoned for our sins, and that means our
account has been reconciled, balanced and we are at one with
God. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ. We can
live with our soul on vacation and we can celebrate life as it
was meant to be celebrated. We can give ourselves permission
to lighten up and enjoy God and the life He has provided for
us. We don’t need to be sad, depressed, and discouraged
about our past, not even the past of one moment ago! God
does not want us to live life always looking in the rearview
mirror. We need not forfeit any joy or enjoyment. With good
news such as this, how can we not celebrate?
 All Things Are Possible

If there are no impossibilities then we can live in constant

victory and nothing can threaten us or make us feel afraid of
the future. With men a great deal is impossible, but with God
all things are possible (see Mark 10:27). Everything that is in
the will of God will be accomplished in His way and timing.
Is life too much for us? Is there anything that we just
cannot handle? Not according to God, for He says through the
Apostle Paul that we can do all things through Christ Who is
our Strength. We are ready for anything and equal to anything
through Him Who infused inner strength into us (see Phil.
4:13).
Before we will let go and let God be our all in all, we
usually have to find out the hard way that we cannot do it all.
The hard way means that we keep trying and failing over and
over until we admit total dependence on God. It can be a long
and painful journey and some never reach the end of
themselves, but for those who do, it is the beginning of living
with their soul on vacation. They know they can’t do it all, but
they also know that God can and they decide that watching
Him do what needs to be done as only He can do will be
entertaining. I love to watch God work. It is one of my greatest
pleasures in life.
Just how sufficient are we without God? We had nothing
to do with being born, no control over our nationality or the
color of our skin, and we did not control our ancestry or the
basic mental and physical abilities we were born with. A power
no one understands keeps our heart beating, our lungs taking
in air, our blood circulating, and our body temperature up. A
simple study of the human body surely must tell us that we
have a Divine Creator. What a tragedy to believe that we
evolved from apes! A surgeon can cut through human tissue,
but, by a miracle no one understands, the body heals itself. We
are amazed and impressed by the medicine available today, yet
we all grow old and eventually we all die, and no amount of
modern medicine can stop that!
Are we self-sufficient? Hardly!
The law of gravity that holds the world together operates
independently of us. The balance of oxygen and nitrogen is
exactly right for man and animals. The planet is tipped on its
axis at exactly 23½ degrees. Were it to vary at all, continents of
ice would form at the North and South Poles with a desert in
between. If the sun were any farther away we would freeze to
death, and if it were any closer, we would die of solar radiation.
If the balance of any of these things suddenly changed, even a
tiny bit, we would all be instantly destroyed. The Bible says
that Jesus is upholding, maintaining, guiding, and propelling
the entire universe by His power (see Heb. 1:3). It sounds like a
huge job, but He does it without any effort seated (resting) by
God’s side.
Since we know that God is keeping the universe running
properly every second of every day, why would we doubt that
He can take care of us? He has all power, all authority, all
wisdom, and he loves us with a perfect love that is promised to
us unconditionally and forever. Put your faith in Him and enter
His rest. Faith is the leaning of the entire human personality on
Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom,
and goodness (see Col. 1:4). Think that over and ask yourself if
you trust God absolutely. Are you leaning on Him in every
situation? Do you believe that He has the power to help you,
and that since He has all wisdom He knows exactly what to do
and when to do it? Do you believe that God is good, and that
He wants to be good to you? If you do believe these things,
then you are ready for the next piece of good news that I have
for you.
 There Is Nothing for You to Worry
About

Worry is totally useless. As I often say, it is like rocking in a

rocking chair all day. It keeps you busy, but gets you nowhere.
I was a worrier, so I know what a stronghold it can become in
our lives. I also know that it is a bad habit that is not easily
broken, but since all things are possible with God, then it is
possible for us to live free from worry, anxiety, and fear. If you
are willing to give up worrying, then you will be able to enter
into an attitude of celebration. You can trust God and enjoy life
while He solves your problems. Give yourself permission to
stop worrying.

Nothing is outside of God’s control, so in reality there is

nothing to worry about. If for some reason God could not
control a thing, whatever would make us think that we could?
When we begin to look at worry in a realistic manner we see
how totally useless it is. Our minds revolve endlessly around
and around a problem, searching for answers that only God
has. We may ponder a thing and ask God for wisdom, but we
do not have God’s permission to worry. Pondering a thing in
God is peaceful, but worry is tormenting. When we worry, we
torment ourselves! We can pray and ask God to help us not to
worry, but ultimately we must choose to put our thoughts on
something other than our problems. A refusal to worry is proof
that we trust God and it releases Him to go to work in our
behalf.
Worry is a big problem for people. I wonder how much of
our mental time is spent worrying, reasoning, and fearing—-
possibly more than is spent on anything else. Instead of
meditating on our problems let’s choose to meditate on the
“alls” of God. Let us realize how unlimited His power is and
trust Him to do what we cannot do.
One relatively short Scripture in the Bible uses the word
“all” four times:

Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your
worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for
He cares for you affectionately and cares about you
watchfully.
1 Peter 5:7 (emphasis mine)

I am asking you to take the time to really look at this verse,

word by word, and think about what it really means. We
receive revelation through meditation, not just reading quickly.
There is great value in digesting a Scripture one word at a time.
Casting means to pitch or throw. So we need to violently
refuse to worry—to throw it away! The whole of our care
means all of our cares. All anxiety, all worry, all concern is to be
thrown away, and we should do it thoroughly, once and for all
so that we make a decision to never waste one minute of our
lives worrying. Not only are we to throw our care away, but
this verse says that we are to throw our cares on God! Because
He is God, He can—and wants to—absorb our cares. What a
gift! God cares for us affectionately—not begrudgingly. God
enjoys caring for us. He cares about everything that concerns
us and He is always watching. Nothing slips by God
unnoticed.
Even if we make a firm decision not to worry, worry will
present itself to us and try to slip back into our thoughts. Our
job is to cast it down the moment we realize it is trying to
occupy space in our thinking. I will admit that initially it is quite
a battle, but persistence always pays off. The devil will try us
to see if we mean business, so we must be firm in our decision.
I WILL NOT WASTE ONE MINUTE OF MY LIFE
WORRYING! Say it over and over firmly until this new thinking
becomes a part of you. When you are tempted to worry, I
suggest that you celebrate something God has done for you in
the past instead. Remember, the devil hates parties, but God
likes them.
Instead of leaning toward the negative and meditating on
our problems, let’s look for the things in our life that once were
problems and have now been solved. We can celebrate those
things, and when we do it will increase our faith for current
situations to also be solved. Meditating on good things is a
decision that you must make and not a feeling you wait to
have.
You can order your life according to God’s will, rather
than allowing it to order you. Remember that God has all power
and you are in Him, so you have power, too. You are not a
helpless weakling that must put up with any kind of thought
that falls into your mind. You have weapons of warfare that will
allow you to cast down wrong thoughts and imaginations (see
2 Cor. 10:4–5). These weapons are the word of God being used
in various ways. We can sing the word, speak the word, read
the word, study the word, and meditate on the word. You can
only think about one thing at a time, so the next time you start
to worry, just decide to think about something else and go
ahead and enjoy your day while God works on your situation.
 Take a Vacation While You Work

When we learn to live without worrying we can do our work or

whatever else we need to do, all the while with our soul on
vacation. We can deal with circumstances that are unpleasant
and handle all the responsibility we have, and yet remain
totally peaceful and calm. I recall sharing this message once in
a church, and the pastor of the church got a revelation of what
I was saying and literally threw his hands up in the air, slid
down into a relaxed position in his seat, and said, “I can pastor
this church while my soul is on vacation.”
I think those of us who are in leadership feel responsible
to make sure everything goes the way it should go. Of course,
we should be responsible, but if we take a false or an
exaggerated sense of responsibility then we will never enjoy
what we do. Casting your care does not mean that you don’t
care what happens; it just means that you know only God can
change it. Your faith is in Him rather than in you, and you can
let your mind, emotions, and will rest in Him.
Whatever your assignment is in life, you can enjoy the
entire process if you learn how to let your soul (mind, will,
emotions) rest. David said, “Be merciful and gracious to me, O
God, be merciful and gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge
and finds shelter and confidence in you” (Ps. 57:1). David said
that his soul (mind, will, emotions) was resting in God. His soul
was on vacation! I suggest that you spend some time each
morning deciding how you are going to respond to the day. Set
your mind to be peaceful no matter what happens.
Our soul needs to be quiet rather than in turmoil. If you
take a look at your inner life, what do you see? Are you
worried, upset, and stubbornly resisting God’s plan, or are you
silently waiting on God, expecting Him to be all in all?

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes

my salvation.
Psalm 62:1

How long has it been since you have given your soul a
vacation? It is possible to take your physical body on vacation
for weeks and yet the entire time never let your soul be on
vacation. You can lie on the beach at a beautiful Caribbean
island resort while your soul is in turmoil. Your soul needs a
vacation possibly even more than your body does. It needs to
be quiet and at rest. The entire premise of “eat the cookie…
buy the shoes” is designed to let your soul rest. It is not wrong
to let go of life’s demands and circumstances for a while and
do something you enjoy.
 If we learn to do things God’s way, we will be able to work
with our soul on vacation and we will be able to vacation
without our soul working! One day of inner rest is probably
worth more to our overall health than a two-week physical
vacation. Give it a try—start practicing letting your mind and
emotions rest and while you do it, tell God often that you are
trusting Him to supply all of your needs (see Phil. 4:19).
Anytime your soul gets stirred up remind yourself of this
Scripture:

Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt

bountifully with you.
Psalm 116:7
Give God Your All

hen we give God our all we are actually saying to Him, “God,
Your will be done and not mine.” It is the only way we can live
with our soul on vacation. Otherwise, we are always wrestling
with something that is not working out the way we want. We
exist for God and His glory, and being obedient to His will
should be our goal.

All things were created by and for Him. He existed before

all things and in Him, they are all held together. He is the
Head of all things and must occupy the first and chief
place.
Colossians 1:16–18

Is God your Head? Is He your King, your Chief, and does

His will rule in your decisions? Have you given God your all?
We must answer all these questions honestly, and if we are not
able to say yes, yes, and yes—then we need to change.
Jesus said to His Father, “All that is Mine is Yours, and all
that is Yours is Mine” (see John 17:10). What a beautiful
Scripture! These thirteen words contain volumes of meaning.
What have you not released to God? Whatever it might be is
hurting you more than you might realize. Stubbornly hanging
onto our own will is never good for us. Anything God tells us
to do is always and only for our good if we believe that we will
be able to “Let go and let God be God.”
I was an expert at being stubborn for more years than I like
to admit and perhaps you have been also. But the good news
is that we can change! We can surrender and when we do our
will goes on vacation. Just last night I had an opportunity to
practice what I am preaching. Dave had plans to play golf
today, and I might say that it was one of many times that he
has played lately. I, on the other hand, have been dutifully
working on this book. I asked him if he could play early and get
home by three so we could go and eat early. He responded that
he wanted to have plenty of time to pray and study before he
left for the golf course and that he did not want to have to
hurry since it was his last day to play during this trip. I could
feel my soul going off of vacation right then and there. I felt
words forming in my soul and making their way to my mouth
for expression. I said, “You could sacrifice a little; after all, I
have been working all week!” I could see right away that kind
of approach was not going to work, so I quickly decided to
give it to God. I said to Dave, “You make the decision and I will
work with whatever works out.” In doing this, I was giving God
my all, and immediately my soul went back on vacation and
God was able to work in Dave’s heart. Within less than one
minute Dave said, “I will probably be able to get home by
three.” When I think of the fight we could have had and at one
time would have had, I am so glad that I have learned to give it
to God. If He can’t convince Dave, then I certainly can’t. I
don’t know about your husband, but I have noticed that mine
doesn’t like to be convinced by me; he wants to think it was
his idea. Even if Dave had not changed his mind, it would have
done me no good to get upset. He would have still had a good
time playing golf and I would have been upset and miserable.
We all have similar situations several times each week, if
not daily. How can we live with our soul on vacation if we are
going to try to convince God and everyone else to do things
our way? We can’t, so why not give our all to God so we can
experience His all in our lives?

I mentioned earlier that one of my greatest joys in life is

watching God work. We can either open the door for God to do
amazing things through submission to Him, or close the door
through being stubborn. My decision to shut up and give the
situation with Dave and his golf to God is not so hard now
because I have experienced how wonderful it is to live with my
soul on vacation. But there was a time when it was one of the
most difficult things in the world for me to do. Don’t expect
that giving God your all will be easy in the beginning. It is easy
to say it, but not as easy to do it. Our soul is very much alive—
it has strong opinions and thoughts, strong emotions, and a
strong will. It wants what it wants, when it wants it.
Successfully turning our soul over to God will be similar to
breaking a wild stallion. There will be quite a battle, but you will
enjoy the ride when the battle is over.
Satan definitely does not want you to live with your soul
on vacation. He wants you to worry, be emotionally upset or
downcast, and stubbornly fighting for your own way and
resisting the good will of God. Sadly, this is the condition that
many Christians are in. They go to church, and sing the song,
“I Surrender All,” but that is as far as it goes. There is not
enough teaching on the soul, and many people don’t
understand the important role that it plays in our life. The truth
is that no matter how long you have been a Christian, if your
soul is a mess then you are miserable. The world is already
filled with miserable sinners, so we definitely don’t need
miserable Christians!
 Don’t Miss God’s Best

The Apostle Paul begged those he taught to dedicate all of

their members and faculties to God for His will and use (see
Rom. 12:1). God will manage if we refuse to do that, because He
will find a submitted vessel to work through. But we will miss
out on God’s best for us.
Why did God choose Noah and his family to be saved in
the ark during the flood? What was so special about this one
man? The Bible says that Noah did according to all that God
commanded Him. How much obedience are we willing to walk
in? Especially if what God asks us to do makes no sense to our
mind or doesn’t feel right to our emotions? I doubt that Noah
understood what God was asking him to do when he required
him to build an ark for an upcoming flood. Noah must have
been the laughingstock of his region. I am sure that his
obedience hurt his reputation with men. How willing are you to
obey God if your obedience is likely to hurt your reputation
with men?
Paul said that if he had been trying to be popular with
people he would never have become an apostle of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We cannot always be God pleasers and people
pleasers at the same time.
The Bible doesn’t say this, but perhaps Noah was not the
first or only man to be invited to build the ark. Maybe God
asked others but Noah was the only one willing to obey God.
God is not necessarily looking for people with amazing ability,
but He searches for availability, and a person who is willing to
simply do what He asks them to do. If we will lift our hands to
God and say, “I am available to do whatever you want me to
do,” we can live with our soul on vacation. We will have peace
and joy as we journey through life.
The Bible uses some words that we don’t hear very often
today and I think we should take a look at some of them:
Dedication—Devoted to something, devoted to a divine
being, set aside for a special purpose. Are you dedicated to
God?
Consecration—Anointed with the Holy Spirit for a special
purpose, not to be used for other things, made sacred by a
ceremony (see Rom. 1:7 and 1 Peter 2:5).
Do you see yourself as one that is set aside for a special
purpose in life?
Sacrifice—Offering something to God by giving up
something that we have. We can sacrifice praise, thanksgiving,
money, time, or anything that we own. We can also sacrifice
ourselves. God wants us to come to Him as a living sacrifice.
Are you willing to make any personal sacrifice to be in
God’s perfect will?
Submission or obedience—Doing what we are asked to
do by someone in authority, and with a good attitude.
Are you submissive to God and all other authority in your
life?
Chastisement—God’s correction (done in love) teaching
people to obey Him. Training (often painful) that is intended to
develop our character and make us better people.
 Do you receive God’s chastisement with an attitude of
celebration?
Pruning—Cutting back, or cutting off a wild or diseased
part of a plant. We are God’s plant and He is the Divine
Gardener (see John 15:1–2).
How do you respond when God cuts something out of
your life that you are fond of?
My experience as a teacher of God’s word is that people
would normally prefer to hear words such as “love,” “grace,”
“peace,” “prosperity,” and “blessing.” They lose their smiles
and become quite somber with words like the ones I’ve defined
above. However, I have discovered that even though they
might not clap and cheer while being taught about these
words, they will be very happy later on if they learn how to
work with the Holy Spirit in applying these disciplines to their
lives.
What kind of books do you read? What kind of teaching
and preaching do you prefer listening to? Do you have books
in your library about character development, integrity, spiritual
growth and maturity, going deeper in God, living in God’s
presence, and obedience to God? Or, do you just read things
that make you feel good, but don’t confront your behavior or
challenge you to change? I could probably go into someone’s
home and look at their library and tell you what kind of
Christian they are and how interested they are in a deeper walk
with God.
We offer resource material at our conferences that will
help people mature spiritually, but I often hide the meat of the
word under “dessert titles,” so people will buy them. For
example, I have a series on obedience that I call, “How to be
radically and outrageously blessed.” I have to use the same
tactic when I give my dog her medicine. I take the little pill that
will keep her out of pain and wrap cheese or turkey around it so
she thinks it is a treat. That is the only way to get her to take it.
I once had a teaching series on pride and humility and
nobody would buy it because the ones who needed it were too
concerned (proud) that someone might see them purchase it
and think they needed it. I also tried a series called
“Developing Patience,” and that did not sell very well either. I
actually heard people talking at the resource tables, saying,
“You don’t want to buy that, you know what happens if you
pray for or study patience.” They knew that patience is only
developed by going through trials, but they didn’t want to find
out enough to actually begin to work through the process. As I
have said before, head knowledge alone is almost useless. The
principles of God must be worked into our lives by studying
the word and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We need
what the Apostle Paul called the meat of the word. We need
teachings that deal with wrong attitudes, sin, dying to self, and
other important lessons.
The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, an
uncomfortable place where He was tempted by the devil for
forty days (see Luke 4:1–2). Why? So Jesus could put the
principles into practice that He had studied and have the
experience of resisting and defeating Satan. We don’t get any
muscle (physical or spiritual) without working out. Any time
God leads us into a difficult place it is always for our ultimate
good. If you have been avoiding hard places I encourage you
to embrace them because they will help you be what God wants
you to be.
 This Can Be a Turning Point

Perhaps you are being convicted that you have not given your
all to God. Well, this can be a turning point in your life. God’s
will is just a decision away. I would rather start wrong and
finish right, than to start right and finish wrong. The Bible is
filled with stories of men who started in the will of God, but
began drifting from God’s will into their own.

Saul was anointed by God to be king, and he did some of

what God asked him to do, but he did not do all that the Lord
told him to do. We must understand the importance of the all.
The all makes all the difference in the world. Some of what God
requires doesn’t work with Him; it is all or nothing if we truly
want to please Him! He is looking for obedience, not sacrifices.
Saul did almost all that God asked, but “almost all” is very
deceptive. We can easily deceive ourselves, as Saul did, into
thinking we have done what God has asked. Saul had not done
God’s will and was confronted by the Prophet Samuel. Samuel
said, “The Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go, utterly
destroy the sinners, the Amalekites; and fight against them
until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice
of the Lord, but swooped down upon the plunder and did evil
in the Lord’s sight?” Saul answered Samuel by saying, “Yes, I
have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way
which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag king of
Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the
people took from the spoil sheep and oxen, the chief of the
things to be utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your
God in Gilgal” (1 Sam. 15:18–21). It was at this point that
Samuel told Saul God did not want sacrifices, but obedience.
If we study this story we can learn a great lesson. First we
see that Saul did almost all that God asked, but the little bit he
did not do got him into as much trouble as if he had refused to
do any of it. Secondly, we can see that Saul deceived himself.
His own reasoning denied his conscience its normal and
healthy function. I think the worst part of this story is that Saul
told Samuel he kept the best of the spoil to sacrifice to God. He
said that he disobeyed God in order to benefit God. That is the
worst kind of deception!
The worst thing about disobedience is that it promises to
make you happy by giving you what you want, but it ends up
making you miserable. We can never be truly happy with
anything less than God’s perfect will. I have heard people
speak on the permissive will of God and say that God wants us
to walk in His perfect will, but that there is a place called God’s
permissive will that is somewhere between being out of God’s
will completely and being in His perfect will. I suppose that
means something God will put up with, but doesn’t approve of.
 I personally don’t like that kind of teaching, because I
believe as a teacher of God’s word that it is my job to help
people be excellent, not mediocre. I realize that we may spend
most of life working toward being in the perfect will of God, but
we should definitely hunger for it, crave it, pursue and go after
it with all of our might. Let’s not be mediocre people, who settle
somewhere in the middle, halfway between God’s worst and
His best. I can’t think of a good name for that place, but I
suppose we can just call it a mess and be fairly accurate.
Saul started out good, but he drifted fairly quickly into
doing his own thing. Jacob, on the other hand, started really
bad and ended up good. Jacob was a man who cheated, lied,
tricked people, and connived to get what he wanted, but
eventually he gave his all to God and became a great servant of
God. In Genesis 32:22–28 you can read about how Jacob was
restored to God after he was willing to give up all that he had in
order to have peace in his soul. His soul definitely needed a
vacation. He had spent his life running and hiding, worrying
about being caught and punished for his deceptive behavior.
But he decided to change. It is never too late to do things
right! This can be a turning point for you if you need one.
 Is Your Behavior Pleasing to God?

I established earlier in the book that God is pleased with us as

His children. He loves and accepts us as we are, but if our
hearts are right toward Him, then we will also want to please
Him in all things. Is God pleased with how you dress, how you
spend your money, what your entertainment choices are, what
you read, watch, and talk about? It is true that God loves us no
matter what choice we make, but He also said that if we loved
Him we would obey Him (see John 14:15). Total consecration is
definitely a journey, but the question is, where are you
headed? Do you want God’s perfect will enough to sacrifice
anything in order to have it? Are you willing to give God your
all?
Jesus once asked a rich, young ruler to give all of his
money to the poor, and the young man went away sad because
he was unable to give his possessions (see Matt. 19:21–22).
Jesus would have given it back to him many times over with
joy, but the young man failed his test. He kept his possessions,
but he had no joy. Sadly, much of the world is in the same
condition as the young man. People’s possessions end up
between them and God, and, sadly, their possessions are more
important to them than they should be. Those people
stubbornly hang onto their ways and willfulness, refusing to
submit to God; they end up sad, depressed, angry, and unable
to maintain good relationships. They are forever looking for
something to fill the void in their souls.
 Oh, if people only knew the beauty of living with their
souls on vacation. Give your will a vacation by submitting it to
God and start celebrating life. Stop wrestling with God, and you
will stop going around and around the same mountains
(problems) because you are determined to have your own way.

What does the richest man in the world have if his money
is gone? What does the most famous movie star or singer have
if something happens and they lose their ability to perform?
What does the most beautiful woman in the world have when
she grows old and her skin is wrinkled, her hair is gray, and she
is perhaps walking with a walker? We must make decisions
now that we will be happy with later on in life, because later on
always comes. I want to give my all to God so I never have
regrets later on about what could have been if I had obeyed.
When we give our all to God, when we obey Him in all
things, and when all of our confidence is in Him, and when we
only want what He wants us to have, there is nothing left to
the soul but peace and rest (vacation). We have discovered the
resurrection life that Paul talked about that lifts us out from
among the dead while we are still in the body. The Psalmist
talked about being hidden in the secret place of the Most High
(see Ps. 91:1). I believe we have found that place when we
know that from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
For all things originate with Him, live through Him, center in
Him, and end in Him (see Rom. 11:36).
Are you tired and weary, overburdened and exhausted?
Then come to Jesus and He will give you a vacation for your
soul! Your mind, emotions, and will can all be at rest and you
can be a Christian that is an alleluia from head to foot, as
Augustine of Hippo said you should be.
Celebrate Discipline

iving with our soul on vacation will require discipline. On the

surface, that sounds like a contradiction. But we will need to
use discipline in our thoughts, our emotions, and our
willingness to release our will to God’s will. If we are going to
give up worry, upset, and stubbornness, and instead choose to
celebrate, party, eat cookies, buy shoes, play games, and have
feasts that last several days at a time, won’t we eventually get
into trouble? Yes, we would if we had no balance. That’s why
we need to understand the role discipline must play in all areas
of life. Usually people grimace and groan when they hear the
word “discipline,” but discipline is not our enemy. In fact, it is
actually our very good friend. Discipline helps us to be what
we say we want to be and have what we say we want to have,
but never will have without it. God has given us a spirit of
discipline and self-control according to Scripture (see 2 Tim.
1:7). Self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit-led life. A life
without discipline is a disaster, and one that is all discipline
and no celebration is a dry desert. We must have balance!
 As we learn to celebrate other things, let us also learn to
celebrate discipline, because it is a wonderful tool that God has
given us to be our helper, not our master. When various
disciplines become laws, they become the master and we are
the slaves. For example: When I was a young mother and
homemaker, I was extremely disciplined about my housework. I
cleaned house every day and that included dusting, polishing,
sweeping, and using the vacuum cleaner. Of course the dishes
were never in the sink for long, and the laundry was done daily.
I refused to do anything that could have even hinted of
entertainment until all of my work was done. I was proud of
myself and actually looked down on my less-disciplined
friends.

As I grew in my relationship with God and started learning

to be led by the Holy Spirit, I had a day when some friends
invited me to go shopping with them and I not only had a
desire to go, but felt the Holy Spirit telling me to go. However, I
said no, because my disciplined routine had become a law for
me that I lived by. I never deviated from it—I got all my work
done before anything else! I ended up having a miserable day.
I resented the fact that I was working and my friends were
enjoying themselves, but I failed to see that it was my fault.
Nothing went right that day because I was being led by Joyce,
not God.
As a child I realized that I did not get corrected by my dad
when I was working, only when I was playing or laughing too
loud. It seemed to me that the world applauded work, but
disdained play. I felt safe when I was working and following
the rules. Thankfully, I eventually learned that although
disciplines are necessary, we must not let them rule us. It is
permissible to occasionally say, “I just cannot do that
discipline today… I have to play!” God had to teach me that
the dirt would still be around the next day and that like Martha,
I was often overly anxious and worried about things that I
didn’t need to be concerned with. We all need some Mary
days. Days when we lighten up and give ourselves a break!
Occasionally we just cannot go to the gym, or stay on our
diet, or clean house, or do whatever our routine is, and that is
not wrong as long as we also have the discipline to get back on
track the next day. The problem comes in when we have more
undisciplined days than we do ones that are disciplined. Israel
was commanded by God to have feasts, parties, and
celebrations several times a year, but they were also
commanded to work more than they partied. God said that in six
days He created the world and rested on the seventh, and He
gave us the same formula.
 I eat a cookie (with icing) approximately once a week, but I
know that I cannot eat one daily and not have a bad result.
Sadly, some people cannot do things in moderation. They say,
“I am an all-or-nothing person.” But I don’t believe that is the
way God intended us to be. I have had people tell me that if
they allow themselves to eat one cookie, they will end up
eating another and another and another, so they have to deny
themselves all the time. They also tell me how sorry they feel
for themselves that everyone else can enjoy a dessert now and
then and they can’t. I believe the devil has deceived them and
they have forgotten that God has given them a spirit of
discipline and self-control. You can say yes when you want to
and no when you want to. You have the same power in you
that raised Christ from the dead!!!!!
 Develop a New Image

How you see yourself is your image of you. It is like a picture

you carry in your mental wallet and it affects all of your words,
emotions, actions, and decisions. If you see yourself as
someone who cannot control themselves, then that is the way
you will be. If you see yourself as a person who has discipline
and self-control then you will manifest discipline and self-
control.
In God’s kingdom things work differently than they do
according to the world’s ways. For example, God’s word
teaches us to line our thinking up with His, and then what He
says will come to pass (Proverbs 23:7). That is the opposite of
how the average person who has no knowledge of godly ways
functions. They only believe what they see. They have no
knowledge of or belief in the spiritual realm. As Christians, we
believe first and then see! We trust God’s word and promises
more than we trust how we feel or what we see with our natural
eyes.
If God says that we have a spirit of discipline and self-
control then we need to think and say that we have a spirit of
discipline and self-control. If you will see yourself the way He
sees you (finished) then you will become what He says you
are. We must remember that God sees the end from the
beginning. He called Abraham a father of many nations long
before he had a child. He calls us disciplined and self-
controlled and we must have that godly image if we want a life
of freedom.
 Discipline Is Freedom

How do you view discipline? Do you see it as something that

controls you, or something that helps you control yourself? Do
you see it as something you have to do, or something that
helps you become the person you truly want to be? Living a
disciplined life is the only pathway to freedom. Discipline is not
bondage—it is freedom!
Disciplining ourselves to exercise and develop good
eating habits sets us free to feel good and be comfortable in
our clothes. Disciplining ourselves to manage our money
wisely sets us free from the pressure of need and debt.
Disciplining ourselves to be excellent rather than mediocre or
downright lazy gives us the enjoyment of self-respect.
Discipline is hard work, but it is easier than trying to live a life
that is out of control.
Discipline allows us to enjoy a clean, well-kept home,
automobile, and work space. In many ways it sets us free from
fear. We don’t have to fear an economic downturn if we have
disciplined ourselves to be prepared spiritually and financially.
Discipline and self-control are both gifts from God and are
intended to help us enjoy the good life that is God’s will for us.
This book is about enjoying the freedom of celebration. It
is about giving yourself a break and rewarding yourself for
progress. It is about recess and vacation, but the truth is that
none of those freedoms are possible unless we also use
discipline and self-control. Using a generous amount of
discipline and self-control is what makes a life of celebration
possible. I would be doing you an injustice if I gave you the
idea that you can do nothing but party, feast, and celebrate.
Actually, even if we could do that we would not enjoy it
because God has built us to need balance. We actually need
the discipline as well as the party. We might even say that the
discipline is what gives us the right to the party.

You might remember that I wanted to eat the cookie after I

had done four sessions in my conference and had one more to
go. I had studied, prayed, worked, and disciplined myself and
was in need of a reward. I like my occasional cookie, but I
discipline myself to a strict eating plan and three workouts per
week at the gym. I like to buy shoes, but I discipline myself to
give shoes away and I discipline myself to be able to pay for
my shoes. I don’t put them on a credit card having no idea how
I will pay when the bill comes in.
About now you may be thinking that you liked the first
few chapters of this book better than you do this one, but be
courageous and keep reading. If you quit now without learning
the importance of discipline you will never be able to truly
enjoy the other liberties I have discussed.
 Inner Disciplines

Richard J. Foster in his wonderful book called Celebration of

Discipline teaches about the importance of inner disciplines,
which are really spiritual disciplines. I want to talk about them
also because without inner discipline we will never have outer
discipline. For example, if I don’t discipline myself to study
God’s word and pray, I will probably never use wisdom with
my words. I won’t understand the importance or power of my
words if I don’t know God’s word. If we don’t know God then
how can we know anything about what is right and wrong,
wise or foolish? How can we know without studying that He is
the way, the truth, and the life (see John 14:6)? If we don’t
know God’s principles of wisdom then it is easy to live with
financial pressure simply because we are controlled by
emotions when we make purchases. We can spend our entire
lives in selfish self-centeredness and never even understand
that it is the root cause of most of our problems.
Richard Foster said, “Superficiality is the curse of our age.
The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary problem. The
desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent
people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” 1
Jesus challenged His disciples to come out into the deep
to find what they truly desired (see Luke 5:4).
In order to live the deeper life we must learn to discipline
thoughts, attitudes, and emotions. We must learn the
disciplines of prayer, worship, Bible study, meditation, fasting,
giving, service, submission, solitude, and many other things.
Living a shallow life is equivalent to living according to our
own thoughts, feelings, and will. The Bible refers to it as
carnality, or living according to the flesh. The deeper life is
enjoyed by a person who has learned the art of discipline.
They learn to discipline the inner life and the outer life as well.
As I disciplined myself to spend time with God daily in
solitude, reading, and prayer (conversation with God), I
received strength from God to be able to discipline my outer life
(mind, will, and emotions).
Applying discipline has set me free to enjoy a life where I
am not controlled by an unexpected and uninvited emotional
downturn due to difficult circumstances that came without an
invitation. Discipline sets me free from raging against an
unexpected hormone that decided to go in the wrong direction
without any warning. I no longer have to bow to negative
thoughts, ideas, and imaginings that don’t agree with God’s
word. But, I would not have known God’s word had I not
disciplined myself to learn it. So we can plainly see that the
discipline of the inner spiritual life is the doorway to being able
to discipline the other areas of our life.
Spiritual disciplines are intended for ordinary human
beings and not just for the spiritual giants or those who hold
some type of ministry position. They are for moms and dads
who go to work, clean house, cut the grass, buy groceries, and
do their best to raise their children. They are for boys and girls,
teenagers, young singles, and not-so-young singles. Don’t be
deceived into thinking that you are not one of the elite called to
a deep spiritual life. Christ has broken down all of the dividing
walls and we are all the same in Him. We all have the same
responsibility and the same privileges. If you think this deeper
life is not for you then you won’t try to attain it and that would
be tragic indeed.
You need no special training to be deeply spiritual except
that you are hungry for more of God in your life. There must be
a longing in your soul for a genuine experience with God.
Without that longing, you will always be satisfied with
counterfeits and mirages. You might think that an occasional
good time is the best you can have, but in reality you can have
joy that cannot be explained. To become deeply spiritual does
not mean that you must wear all black, wipe the smile from your
face, and maintain a look of intensity at all times. Deeply
spiritual people are the happiest and most peaceful people on
earth.
Legalistic, rigid people are miserable, but when discipline
is practiced under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, it is one of
the most beautiful tools God has given to man. And the result
of that discipline is grace, flexibility, peace, and joy.
It is possible to be overly disciplined, as I once was.
Richard J. Foster said, “The Spiritual Disciplines are intended
for our good. They are meant to bring the abundance of God
into our lives. It is possible, however, to turn them into another
set of soul-killing laws. Law-bound Disciplines breathe death.”
2
We may become zealous in our quest for spiritual
disciplines and merely turn them into external rules that never
change the heart. The Pharisees were the most disciplined men
of their day and yet they were sad-faced, rigid, and critical.
They told everyone what to do because they knew what was
right, but they personally had no spiritual tenderness. They
never lifted a finger to help anyone! True spiritual disciplines
should make us more like Jesus, Who is humble, gentle, meek,
and lowly, and yet at the same time is mighty, powerful, and a
victorious warrior. Jesus always maintains the perfect balance
in everything.
Disciplines are not meant to manipulate and control you.
They are intended to keep you on the narrow path that leads to
life (see Matt. 7:13–14). You can be deeply spiritual and
amazingly disciplined, and yet celebrate every day that God
gives you on earth. You can be deeply spiritual and laugh four
hundred times daily like little children do.
 Discipline Yourself

One of the most irritating things in the world to me is a person

who is extremely disciplined in some area of their life, and who
tries to force their discipline on me. We must beware of trying
to make everyone do what we do. Even if it would be good for
them, it is between them and God. It is best to pray for people
(humbly) and not offer advice unless they ask for it or it is
evident that God is opening a door for us to make a
suggestion. I have had to remember that God has given me self-
control, and that means I am supposed to control myself, not
others. I need to discipline myself before I even think about
trying to help anyone else.
When we have developed a discipline in a specific area we
often try to convince other people that they need to discipline
themselves in the same way we do. Some people who don’t
drink coffee like to try and make me feel guilty when I drink it,
but they are wasting their time. I already gave it up and did not
feel any different than I do when I drink it. I have also had
discussions with the Lord about it and checked with a
nutritionist who assures me that in moderation caffeine is not
bad for me. Just because God has led someone else not to drink
caffeine does not mean that He is leading me that way. My
husband tried to talk me into exercising for years, but it did no
good until God told me to do it. On my cookie day, I hate being
with one of those people who never eats sugar—I don’t want
to feel their thoughts and see their disapproving looks about
what they may assume is a lack of discipline on my part.
I had a bad habit for many years of trying to tell others
what to do in areas where I was successful, but I finally learned
that God told me to discipline myself, not everyone else. I
believe we often lose our own victories through trying to give
advice to others. Be careful when you think you stand, lest you
fall (see 1 Cor. 10:12). Trying to tell others what to do is often a
manifestation of pride and it always opens the door for a fall.
One of the secrets to being successful is to keep your success
to yourself. When I am trying to lose a few pounds I invariably
cannot stick to my plan if I start telling everyone what I am
doing. However, if I keep it mainly between me and God, then
He strengthens me and gives me success.

There is a time to share things, but also a time to be quiet.

You have a spirit of discipline and self-control, and it is your
best friend if you know how to use it properly. It will help you
be deeply spiritual and successful in all areas of life. We
should definitely celebrate discipline.
 Some Practical Guidelines

If you have lots of areas in your life that you realize need
discipline, don’t try to correct all of them at once. “One thing at
a time” is usually the best policy. Pray, asking God to give you
direction about what to tackle first, and when you believe you
have a proper goal then get a realistic plan on how to
accomplish it. Notice I said pray first and then plan. Don’t make
your own plan and tell God He has to make it work. I also want
you to notice that I said make a realistic plan.
If you need to clean your basement and garage, don’t plan
to get them both cleaned in one day. It might be better to set a
goal of two weeks. It is always better to reach your goal early
than it is to have unreasonable expectations, get discouraged,
and never reach it at all. Perhaps you should dedicate one or
two hours a day to the project until it is finished. Once you
reach the goal you can check it off your list, look at the
finished product with joy, and eat a cookie!
Maybe you need to lose fifty pounds and you would like
it gone two months before swimming season begins and you
want to wear a bathing suit. That probably won’t happen! If
that is your goal you won’t last long because you will have
defeated yourself with an unrealistic goal. Maybe you should
say, “By this time next year I will have lost fifty pounds, I will
look great in my bathing suit, and I will be exercising regularly.”
That is the long-term goal and you can set short-term goals
that will help you reach it.
 Maybe your goal should be to lose six to eight pounds
each month. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but usually
weight that is lost slowly and properly is more likely to stay off
than weight lost through an unhealthy fad diet of some sort.
The more overweight you are, the faster you will lose weight,
so this goal must be an individual one, but it should be
realistic.
You will always have something in life that you are
working toward. You will never have everything checked off
your list. So keep at it and enjoy the journey. I can remember
when I felt very disappointed with myself if I ran out of day
before I got everything accomplished that I had planned. It
seemed that I was always dissatisfied with my progress until I
finally realized that no matter how much I did there would
always be new things coming up. I can check one thing off of
my list, but another one is being added, so with God’s help I
finally learned to do my best each day and get up the next day
and start again (with a good attitude).
 As we try to reach our goals we will have times of success
and we will also have times when we feel that we failed. But,
the truth is we never fail unless we quit and give up. I love
John Maxwell’s theory that we can fail forward. 3 In other
words, we can learn from our mistakes and keep pressing on. If
you are on a diet and suddenly on the tenth day you get
emotional and eat everything in sight, that doesn’t mean that
you should just give up and keep overeating every day. See
the eating day as a momentary setback in a long-range plan,
get up the next day, and keep going in the right direction.
Messing up one day doesn’t need to ruin your entire plan if
you don’t let it.
If you are trying to get out of debt and have been really
disciplining yourself and cutting back on unnecessary
spending, then you really blow it and buy something that you
should not have bought, don’t give up. Perhaps you can return
the item, but if you can’t then learn a good lesson and keep on
going forward. Even a turtle will eventually get where he is
going!
I think my best practical advice is to realize that our lives
don’t get out of order in one day, and they won’t get back in
order in one day. If we want success we need to realize that it
won’t come quickly or be maintained without an effort. We are
usually undisciplined for quite a while in an area before it
begins to catch up with us and once we decide to do what is
right it will take time to start seeing results. Be committed to a
lifestyle of discipline and self-control. Don’t have an attitude
that says, “I want to hurry up and lose this excess weight so I
can eat whatever I want to again.” If that is your attitude you
will live on a roller coaster of ups and downs all of your life.
Make a decision that you are going to live a disciplined and
self-controlled life, but that along the way you will give
yourself an occasional break to eat the cookie and buy the
shoes, or whatever it is you enjoy doing.
And last, but not least, I want to suggest that in addition
to planning your disciplines for the day you also plan
something that you enjoy. Take time for recess! Make that latte
and enjoy drinking it, take a walk in the park; if you are going
to make it a cookie day, be sure to enjoy every bite. I have
found that I don’t discipline myself without a plan and I have
also found that I am more likely to do things I enjoy if I plan
them, too.

God has given us a spirit of discipline and self-control and

all we need to do is exercise it. By the way… the more you
discipline yourself the easier it will be!
Discipline Yourself to Celebrate

he theme of this book has been celebration and learning to

reward ourselves for progress. It has been about giving
yourself permission to lighten up and not be so intense. I want
you to celebrate life and enjoy it immensely because I believe
that is God’s will. Since life can often be challenging and we
can easily get entangled in all of its problems, we will need to
actually discipline ourselves to keep the theme of celebration
alive. We all have to deal with problems that arise and people
that frustrate and/or disappoint us. There is no way to be alive
and avoid that, but if we add generous portions of celebration
to our lives we will find that we don’t feel so overwhelmed by
the unpleasant parts. Remember that Jesus said we should
come to Him when we feel overburdened and worn out and He
would give us recreation for our souls (see Matt. 11:28–29).
I want to emphasize again that when you plan your day,
make sure to make room for something that you enjoy. If you
are not accustomed to doing this, and most of you probably
aren’t, it will require discipline. I can almost guarantee you that
initially you will feel guilty simply because we feel more
acceptable when we are working and accomplishing something.
I surveyed a room full of people yesterday and asked if they
felt better about themselves when they were working or
relaxing. All of them said they felt more acceptable when they
were working. They all happened to be young mothers and
confessed that they felt guilty relaxing if any work remained to
be done. Why do we feel that way? I think the correct answer
is comprised of several parts. First, we are created by God to be
responsible and that is a necessary and a good trait. However,
if we let the good thing go too far it becomes a bad thing, and
we become overly responsible to the point that we cannot
relax. We can easily take on a false sense of responsibility
where we feel responsible to do more than is reasonable. We
can join the driven society around us that is supporting a
multi-billion-dollar stress-related business, or we can discipline
ourselves to include regular celebration and rewards for
progress. The fact that our entire society seems to be driven,
and worships career success, becomes another part of the
reason why most people feel guilty if they are not
accomplishing something all of the time.
I have met young moms who feel they are not what they
should be unless they can juggle marriage, parenting,
homemaking, and a career. I remember when it was out of the
ordinary for a mother to work outside of the home, and now it
seems to be rare if they don’t. What each family decides to do
is their choice, but one thing is for sure: no mother should feel
belittled because she decides to devote herself entirely to her
family and make that her career. One thing we don’t have to do
is drive ourselves to be like someone else. Jesus set us entirely
free from the tyranny of comparison and competition, and we
can and should celebrate that we are unique (see 2 Cor. 10:12).
 Constantly Making Adjustments

As you add celebration to your life you may find that you
occasionally go too far and need to make adjustments. One of
the reasons I had so much trouble not working all of the time is
that for some reason I was afraid I might get lazy if I lightened
up. My family laughed at me when I told them that, but it is the
truth. I know that it is easy to go too far in anything, and I just
want to make sure that I stay in balance. I have learned to trust
God with the whole thing and simply follow the leading of the
Holy Spirit. I work hard, but I rest. And when I have rested and
celebrated enough then I go back to work.
There are people who don’t like to work, and they have no
problem at all partying and playing all of the time, but that is
not true celebrating because they are not doing anything to be
celebrated. Celebrating nothing is not genuine celebration!
These individuals are lazy and undisciplined and quite often
their natural temperament tends toward fun, but they have
never learned the discipline and reward of hard work. I think we
will all be out of balance in some way if we don’t continually
make adjustments.
I am more naturally inclined toward work, accomplishment,
and responsibility; therefore I have had to learn how to
discipline myself to rest, celebrate, and take time to reward
myself for progress. It was not an easy lesson for me to learn,
because the other traits were deeply ingrained in me and had
become who I was. I was not a human being, but instead I had
become a human doing. I also know people who have
struggled just as much as I did trying to overcome the
tendency to play too much. They were undisciplined people
who found work and responsibility hard to deal with. They
were experts at procrastination and avoidance, but they have
asked for God’s help and used principles of discipline to
overcome excess in their area just as I did in mine. The bottom
line is that we all have to discipline ourselves; otherwise our
lives will be out of balance.
I have found that I rarely make a decision to fix something
without eventually needing to make more adjustments. I will
probably always have to stand fast in this liberty of not
working all the time and taking time to celebrate. I think some
people will always have to discipline themselves to not play
too much and do the work that needs to be done. I am always
making adjustments and I find that most well-balanced people
do the same thing. It is simply too easy in our society to get
out of balance. We live in a driven society where pushing
ourselves is applauded, yet we also live in a society that is
addicted to entertainment, so we should always exercise
ourselves to find the right balance between the two opposite
extremes.
 I regularly notice that I have gotten out of balance in some
area of my life and have to make an adjustment. I work hard to
maintain good eating habits, but several times a year I start
eating too much of something (usually cookies) and have to
have a meeting with myself and set new goals again! There was
a time when I felt like a failure when that happened, but I have
learned that I can fail forward. I can simply realize I am out of
balance and start doing the right thing again. It would be better
if I never got off track, but I am a human and won’t manifest
perfect control in every area every day of my life. God has
given us a spirit of discipline and self-control so we can get
back on track when we notice that we have veered off. He also
gives us His Holy Spirit to make us aware of those times and
help us make the adjustments needed. You are living a self-
defeating life if you feel guilty each time you realize you need
to change something. As I said earlier in the book, we can and
should celebrate being convicted by the Holy Spirit about
areas in our life that need to change. We can celebrate that we
have the ability to stay in balance by making regular
adjustments to our lifestyle.
We can take a negative view and moan over the fact that
we need to change, or we can celebrate the fact that we can
change with God’s help. That is good news! I love good news
—it is like water to a thirsty soul (see Prov. 25:25). We will be
changing all of our lives. If we don’t need to change anymore
that means we are dead. Life is about progress and progress is
about change, so if you don’t like change you will have to get
over it.
 Facing Truth

Truth is something we need to celebrate because we cannot

change anything until we face truth about where we are. And
that is usually the hardest part. Neither can we change until we
stop feeling guilty about where we are right now. The process
of conviction, facing truth, and disciplining ourselves to
change goes something like this:
I am eating too much but I don’t want to face it, so I keep
making excuses. I say things like: “I don’t eat as much as most
people that I know,” or “The older I get the slower my
metabolism works,” or “The dry cleaner must have shrunk my
pants.” This year when I got out my summer pants I noticed
they were all tighter. Since I had needed to have some of them
taken in the year before last, I was sure that the seamstress
took them in too much and I just didn’t notice it last year. My
point is that our excuses are endless. They are actually reasons
stuffed with lies. The next phase for me is to face the truth that
I am eating too much. If you come to this point you might even
want to say it out loud or confess it to a friend: “I have been
eating too much and that is why I have gained weight.” The
truth will set you free.
For me I find that writing down everything I eat for two
weeks helps me get back on track. First of all I tend not to
overeat if I have to write it down and look at my list, and
secondly I start realizing how excessive I have become when I
begin to say no to things so that I don’t have to write them
down.
Once I have faced the truth and fully realized what I did
that caused my problem, it is not that difficult to fix it. I am
usually a little hungry for about three days, but I can even
avoid that by nibbling on carrots and celery. Before long I am
back to my perfect weight, I feel good about the way my
clothes fit, and I feel good because I am disciplining myself.
Then I can have my days of celebration (cookie days) without
a gnawing feeling that I am doing the wrong thing. I have just
gone through one of my adjustment times while writing this
book and I am celebrating the fact that I can see the truth,
receive conviction, and with God’s help make the changes I
need to make. Jesus came to bring good news and part of that
good news is that we can find a way to celebrate everything if
we will look for it.
 Refuse to Live in Mourning

Part of disciplining ourselves to celebrate life is refusing to live

in mourning. There is a time to mourn, but we dare not let it
become a way of life. The Bible says that weeping (mourning)
endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning (see Ps. 30:5).
There are things that happen in life that rightfully need to be
mourned over, but joy always returns to balance things out.
We must let the joy back into our lives after times of sadness
and not feel guilty about enjoying life after disappointment or
even tragedy has struck. There is a time to mourn and a time to
rejoice, but we must not live in the state of mourning.
Part of life is dealing properly with sadness and
disappointment. We cannot avoid them—and we should not
deny the emotions that go with loss of any kind—but we can
recover! I was saddened when I learned that a trusted
employee had been stealing from us, but I rejoiced that God
brought the wrong-doing into the light and it was discovered. I
have a time of mourning when people I love die, but I can also
rejoice that they knew Jesus and are spending eternity with
Him. I am sad when I realize that I have let an area of my life get
out of balance through lack of discipline, but I can rejoice that I
now see the truth and am back on track. For all mourning there
is an offsetting reason to celebrate, and although mourning is
proper and is even part of our healing, it cannot last forever.
We cannot live in a state of mourning over things that have
happened that we cannot change. In Christ there is always a
place of new beginnings and that is good news worth
celebrating.

We prolong our tragedies by continuing to mourn over

them long after they are over. We can easily make the mistake
of regretting what we have lost instead of counting what we
have left and moving forward. I lost my childhood and my
innocence through abuse, and it was tragic indeed. Even
though I got away from the abusive situation at the age of
eighteen, I continued to mourn and live in regret and bitterness
for approximately another thirty years. It was only after I had
been taught by the Holy Spirit the principles I am sharing with
you in this book that I understood the importance of refusing
to mourn any longer. It was a decision I had to make based on
God’s promise of a new life made available to me in Jesus.
We see this principle brought out beautifully in the book
of Esther. The Jewish people were being oppressed and
threatened with extinction, but God delivered them. As soon as
the deliverance was secured, they were instructed to mourn no
more, but to declare a holiday during which they would rest,
feast, be glad, and send gifts to the poor. They were also
instructed to keep this holiday every year so they would
remember the time when they got rest from their enemies, and
as the month that their sorrow was turned to gladness, and
from mourning (Esther 9:18–22).
They had not only been physically delivered, but they
chose not to continue thinking and talking about the past
tragedy. I had to do the same thing in order to truly be free. I
walked away from abuse at the age of eighteen, but continued
it in my soul for another thirty years. My soul needed a
vacation but I did not even know one was available. Thank
God for revelation and the truth that sets us free. Once we
know it, we can discipline ourselves to act accordingly and
enjoy the benefits of knowing and serving God. God says to
rejoice and celebrate and we must discipline ourselves to do it.
I pray that as I share these things with you that they will
help you avoid wasting years of your life in mourning as I did.
Hopefully you can benefit from them at a younger age than I
did, but whatever your age is, rejoice that you see the light
now and can start celebrating today. Even if you don’t “feel”
like celebrating, you can discipline yourself to do it and your
feelings will eventually catch up with your decision.
 I Can’t Celebrate… I Still Have My
Problem!

Perhaps you still have your problem and have not yet been
delivered as Esther and her people were. You may be thinking
that you can’t celebrate because there is nothing to celebrate
yet, but you can begin by faith because you have your hope in
God.
The Psalmist David gives us a good example of this in the
Psalms. He talked to his own soul and asked it why it was
mourning because of his enemies and why it was cast down?
He then instructed his own soul to put its hope in God and wait
expectantly in God Who was the help of his countenance (see
Ps. 42:9–11). Our countenance is the look we have on our face,
so David was actually saying that God could help him smile
even in the midst of his unpleasant circumstances. I have
found that talking to myself (my soul) is often very helpful. We
dare not let our emotions control our actions. If we do then we
are letting the devil and our flesh control us rather than the
Holy Spirit. David realized that he was sad, depressed, and
downcast, so he told himself (his soul) to smile and be hopeful
in God.
If you know the power of hope and faith you don’t have
to wait for your circumstances to change to start celebrating.
Even as I write this book, we are waiting for a pathology report
on a member of our family that could mean serious trouble if it
doesn’t come back negative. We trust God and keep rejoicing
in Him because it makes no sense to do anything else. All of
our lives are filled with ups and downs, but we don’t have to
go up and down with them. We can remain stable in God! God
is smiling over us and we can smile back at Him! Since God sits
in the heavens and laughs at His enemies surely we can smile
(see Ps. 2:4, 37:13).
 Good News!

Richard J. Foster reminds us in his book that celebration is at

the center of God’s heart. Jesus entered the world on a note of
celebration: “I bring you good news of a great joy,” cried the
angel (Luke 2:10). Jesus also left the world bequeathing his
peace and joy to the disciples. “Peace I leave with you: My
[own] peace I now give and bequeath to you” (John 14:27).
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in
you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).
Jesus began His public ministry by proclaiming the year of
Jubilee. He wanted people to realize that a perpetual jubilee
(celebration) of spirit was now available. Captives were
released, debts were canceled, the blind received their sight,
the oppressed were liberated, and the poor received good news
(see Luke 4:18–19). Jesus wanted the people to know that they
no longer had to worry and be anxious. They could trust Him
to take care of them and this formed the basis for celebration.
The burden of fixing everything that was not right in life was
no longer theirs. They could live without fear! They could cast
their care on Him and live in celebration.
“Celebration is central to all the Spiritual Disciplines.
Without a joyful spirit of festivity the Disciplines become dull,
death breathing tools in the hands of modern Pharisees. Every
disciple should be characterized by carefree gaiety and a sense
of thanksgiving,” says Richard Foster. 1 It is vital that we
discipline ourselves to celebrate; otherwise, we won’t be able
to maintain any of the other disciplines that are necessary to
successful living.
The media today fills the world with bad news. They
report every tragedy, murder, and theft. They run and rerun
reports of politicians and other leaders who are dishonest and
immoral. There is nothing uplifting about the evening news on
television or in the newspapers, but I have a book on my lap
right now that is filled with good news! It is the Bible and it is
the book I base my life on. Jesus came to bring good news! He
preached good news! The world we live in and our lives are not
hopeless because Jesus is alive! He is the light in darkness and
hope to the hopeless.
There are good things taking place all over the world, but
the media rarely report them. For example, we just got the
pathology report back on our family member and it was all
negative. The news was good! We should all tell and retell
every good report we hear. We should war against the
prevailing spirit in the world of sadness, depression, and fear
with a genuine spirit of celebrating what God has done for us
and what He is doing every day of our lives. I have decided to
swim upstream against the negative current in our society.
Let’s stay on the narrow path that leads to life together, and
avoid the broad path that leads to destruction.
Let us join with the Apostle Paul in his declaration to
celebrate life no matter what was going on around him: “But
none of these things move me; neither do I esteem my life dear
to myself, if only I may finish my course with joy and the
ministry which I have obtained from [which was entrusted to
me by] the Lord Jesus, faithfully to attest to the good news
(Gospel) of God’s grace (His unmerited favor, spiritual
blessing, and mercy)” (Acts 20:24, emphasis mine).

Sometimes by the time we get to the end of a book we have

taken in so much information that we may have forgotten the
main points that the author was hoping to make. I don’t want
that to happen with this book, so I would like to remind you of
a few things:

1. Eat the cookie… buy the shoes! The cookie is only

a symbol of a principle that I am sharing. Do
something that you like and enjoy, and don’t feel
guilty about it. Don’t let the workaholic and out-
of-balance people in your life make you feel guilty,
either.
2. If you don’t know what you enjoy because you
haven’t taken time to enjoy much of anything in
your life, then start experimenting and find out.
You may even have to develop interests, but
whatever you need to do, do it and refuse to live
without celebration.
3. Reward yourself for progress and stop punishing
 yourself for everything you view as a mistake or a
failure. Remember that you never really fail if you
keep pressing forward and God is ready to forgive
your faults, mistakes, and sins if you will simply
ask Him to.
4. Learn to lighten up! Don’t be so intense about
life’s problems and challenges. It is doubtful that
they will ever all go away, so we need to learn to
co-exist with them joyfully.
5. Celebrate discipline because it is your friend and
not your enemy.
6. Discipline yourself to celebrate, because God
loves a party!
7. Celebrate you because you are worth it!
8. Celebrate Jesus because He is the absolute
greatest and most awesome gift that we have.

Well, the book is finished and I am going to celebrate!

Friends are coming to visit and I told them to bring my cookie!
If you are wondering about this cookie, it is something called a
“double-doozie,” and it is two chocolate chip cookies with
icing in the middle (you should try one). I do discipline myself
to eat only half of one because the last time I ate the whole
thing it nauseated me. To finish writing an entire book
deserves more than half of a cookie, so I am going out to
dinner with some of my family and I am going to laugh as much
as possible. After dinner I am going to watch a good movie.
Yesterday I celebrated almost being done with the book by
taking my two wonderful daughters-in-law shopping. I am
determined to find something to celebrate every day of my life
and I invite you to join me in my quest.
11. Give Your Soul a Vacation

1. Vine, W. E., Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New

Testament Words: A Comprehensive Dictionary of the
Original Words with Their Precise Meanings for
English Readers (MacDonald Publishing, 1989).
2. Nee, Watchman, Balanced Christian Life (Christian
Fellowship Publishers, New York, 1981).

12. Priorities

1. Tozer, A. W., The Pursuit of God (Christian

Publications, New York, 1948), 101–102.

15. Celebrate Discipline

1. Foster, Richard J., Celebration of Discipline: The Path

to Spiritual Growth (Harper San Francisco, San
Francisco, 1983), 1.
2. Ibid., 9.
3. Maxwell, John C., Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes
into Stepping Stones for Success (Thomas Nelson,
Nashville, 2000).
16. Discipline Yourself to Celebrate

1. Foster, Richard J., Celebration of Discipline: The Path

to Spiritual Growth (Harper San Francisco, San
Francisco, 1983), 191.
J OYCE MEYER is one of the world’s leading practical Bible
teachers. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, she has
written more than eighty inspirational books, including The
Love Revolution, Never Give Up!, the entire Battlefield of the
Mind family of books, and two novels, The Penny and Any
Minute, as well as many others. She has also released
thousands of audio teachings, as well as a complete video
library. Joyce’s Enjoying Everyday Life® radio and television
programs are broadcast around the world, and she travels
extensively conducting conferences. Joyce and her husband,
Dave, are the parents of four grown children and make their
home in St. Louis, Missouri.
JOYCE MEYER
MINISTRIES U.S. &
F OREIGN OFFICE
ADDRESSES

Joyce Meyer Ministries

P.O. Box 655
Fenton, MO 63026
USA
(636) 349-0303
www.joycemeyer.org

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P.O. Box 7700 St. Terminal
Vancouver, BC V6B 4E2
Canada
1-800-868-1002

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 Mansfield Delivery Centre
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(27) 21-701-1056

OTHER BOOKS BY JOYCE MEYER

Hearing From God Each Morning Devotional

 The Love Revolution
Any Minute
New Day, New You Devotional
I Dare You
The Penny
The Power of Simple Prayer
The Everyday Life Bible
The Confident Woman
Look Great, Feel Great
Battlefield of the Mind *
Battlefield of the Mind Devotional
Battlefield of the Mind for Teens
Battlefield of the Mind for Kids
Approval Addiction
Ending Your Day Right
21 Ways to Finding Peace and Happiness
The Secret Power of Speaking God’s Word
Seven Things That Steal Your Joy
Starting Your Day Right
Beauty for Ashes (revised edition)
How to Hear from God *
Knowing God Intimately
The Power of Forgiveness
The Power of Determination
The Power of Being Positive
The Secrets of Spiritual Power
The Battle Belongs to the Lord
The Secrets to Exceptional Living
 Eight Ways to Keep the Devil Under Your Feet
Teenagers Are People Too!
Filled with the Spirit
Celebration of Simplicity
The Joy of Believing Prayer
Never Lose Heart
Being the Person God Made You to Be
A Leader in the Making
“Good Morning, This Is God!” (gift book)
Jesus—Name Above All Names
Making Marriage Work
(previously published as Help Me—I’m Married!)
Reduce Me to Love
Be Healed in Jesus’ Name
How to Succeed at Being Yourself
Weary Warriors, Fainting Saints
Be Anxious for Nothing *
Straight Talk Omnibus
Don’t Dread
Managing Your Emotions
Healing the Brokenhearted
Me and My Big Mouth!*
Prepare to Prosper
Do It Afraid!
Expect a Move of God in Your Life… Suddenly!
Enjoying Where You Are on the
Way to Where You Are Going
A New Way of Living
 When, God, When?
Why, God, Why?
The Word, the Name, the Blood
Tell Them I Love Them
Peace
If Not for the Grace of God*

JOYCE M EYER SPANISH TITLES

Las Siete Cosas Que Te Roban el Gozo

(Seven Things That Steal Your Joy)
Empezando Tu Dia Bien (Starting Your Day Right)

*Study Guide available for this title.

BOOKS BY DAVE M EYER

Life Lines